Jhon Arias put the ball in the net in the 14th minute. Within hours, someone put his name on a Solana token. Welcome to the 2026 World Cup, where every goal is simultaneously a sports highlight and a potential crypto catalyst.
Colombia’s 1-0 victory over Ghana on July 3 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City made them the last team to secure a spot in the Round of 16. But the more interesting scoreline for crypto watchers played out on exchanges, where the Chiliz token (CHZ) surged roughly 28% ahead of the match, riding a wave of fan token speculation tied to the tournament.
Kraken, Chiliz, and the World Cup money machine
The CHZ rally didn’t materialize out of thin air. Kraken officially became FIFA’s Crypto Exchange Supporter on June 9, marking the first time the global football governing body has embedded a crypto exchange into its sponsorship tier for a World Cup held on American soil.
Colombia doesn’t even have an official fan token. Unlike clubs and national teams that have partnered with Socios or similar platforms to issue branded tokens, Colombia’s squad is playing this tournament without a dedicated digital asset tied to its name. That absence hasn’t stopped traders from finding ways to speculate on Colombia’s fortunes through broader ecosystem tokens like CHZ.
