Kylian Mbappé just did something no footballer has ever done: win the World Cup Golden Boot twice. His 10 goals at the 2026 tournament brought his career World Cup total to 20 across three tournaments, a staggering achievement that cements him as one of the greatest to ever play the game.
But here’s the thing. The last time Mbappé dominated a World Cup, crypto logos were plastered across seemingly every surface FIFA could monetize. This time around, the industry was nowhere to be found.
From stadium wraps to ghost town
Rewind to 2022. Binance was an official FIFA partner. Crypto.com had its name on arenas. Fan token platforms were running hot. The crypto industry was spending money on sports marketing like it had discovered an infinite money glitch.
Then the glitch corrected itself. FTX collapsed spectacularly. Regulatory scrutiny intensified across multiple jurisdictions. And the companies that survived mostly pulled back from the kind of splashy sports sponsorships that defined the bull market era.
