The 2026 FIFA World Cup knockout phase now has a schedule, and it’s a three-week sprint from June 28 through the final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium.
The Round of 32 kicks off June 28 and runs through July 3. A record 48 teams are competing across 104 matches hosted in three countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Crypto gets its biggest sports stage yet
On June 9, Kraken was announced as the first Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of a FIFA World Cup, representing a deliberate pivot by FIFA toward courting crypto-native audiences, particularly in North America and Europe, where both the matches and the exchange’s user base are concentrated.
FIFA Collect, the organization’s digital collectibles platform, runs on what FIFA calls its own blockchain, built on Avalanche technology. The migration to this EVM-compatible setup has already attracted more than 85,000 addresses.
