Mauricio Pochettino kicked a row of Powerade bottles on the sideline after Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere scored inside the first ten minutes of their Round of 16 clash in Seattle. The sold-out stadium went quiet. For a brief moment, the most expensive coaching hire in US Soccer history looked like a man wondering what he’d signed up for.
Then Malik Tillman buried another free kick, just as he did against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32, and the narrative flipped back to something resembling optimism.
Kraken’s historic World Cup deal and the crypto-sports pipeline
On June 10, 2026, Kraken announced it had become FIFA’s official crypto exchange partner for the 2026 World Cup. That makes it the first time a cryptocurrency exchange has secured an official partnership with the tournament, which is arguably the single largest recurring sporting event on the planet.
Soccer has accounted for a leading share of crypto sports sponsorships from 2024 to 2026, showing renewed activity after the brutal downturn that wiped out earlier deals.
