The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 11 with a format nobody had seen before: 48 teams spread across three host nations.
Two days before the opening match, Kraken became FIFA’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter, marking the first time a crypto exchange has held an official sponsorship role at a FIFA event.
Crypto infrastructure is baked into the tournament
The FIFA Blockchain, built on Avalanche, powers FIFA Collect NFTs, a platform for digital collectibles and, critically, ticketing. The ticketing piece is the one worth paying attention to. Scalping and fraud have plagued major sporting events for decades. Putting tickets on-chain creates a verifiable chain of custody that makes counterfeiting significantly harder.
The Avalanche-based system was developed through 2025 and into 2026, positioning this World Cup as the first major global sporting event with blockchain infrastructure woven into its operational backbone rather than bolted on as an afterthought.
