Kylian Mbappé went down in the penalty area under a challenge from Sadio Mané in the 60th minute of France’s World Cup group stage match against Senegal on June 16. The referee didn’t point to the spot. VAR reviewed it and agreed: no penalty, ruling that Mbappé had initiated the contact. The decision, overseen by referee Alireza Faghani, immediately became one of the tournament’s most debated moments.
## Crypto’s World Cup presence keeps growing
Just a week before the match, on roughly June 9, Kraken was announced as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Despite that marketing spend, neither France nor Senegal have official crypto fan tokens tied to their national teams for this tournament. Club-level fan tokens, like those issued through platforms such as Socios, have become common for European football clubs. But national team adoption remains spotty, even as FIFA itself rolls out the red carpet for crypto partners.
## Mbappé’s complicated crypto history
Mbappé has been an ambassador and investor in Sorare, the NFT-based fantasy football platform, since June 2022. Sorare lets users buy, sell, and trade digital player cards, and having one of the world’s most recognizable athletes as both a spokesperson and a backer gave the platform significant credibility during a period when the broader NFT market was cooling off.
