World Cup 2026 brings elite managers and crypto partnerships to the biggest stage in football

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, spread across the US, Canada, and Mexico, features something unusual: a roster of national team managers who look more like a Champions League coaching carousel than typical international football benches. Carlo Ancelotti is leading Brazil. Thomas Tuchel has England. Mauricio Pochettino is running the US squad.

And while the football world fixates on tactics and trophies, the crypto industry is quietly embedding itself into the tournament’s infrastructure. Kraken was announced as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the World Cup on June 9, 2026, and blockchain-native platforms like Chiliz and Avalanche are powering fan engagement tools that blur the line between spectatorship and speculation.

A managerial class that rewrites the playbook

Ancelotti, who has won the Champions League multiple times across stints at AC Milan, Real Madrid, and beyond, now commands Brazil’s attacking firepower. Tuchel, another Champions League winner with Chelsea, has taken the reins of an England side perpetually labeled as underperforming. Pochettino, who came agonizingly close to winning the Champions League with Tottenham in 2019, is tasked with guiding the host nation through a 48-team tournament, the first of its kind at a World Cup.

Several of these elite coaches have contracts that expire after July 2026. That creates a dynamic where the World Cup doubles as both the sport’s grandest stage and, effectively, an audition for the next lucrative club job.

Crypto finds its biggest sporting stage yet

Kraken’s partnership with FIFA as the tournament’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter is centered on fan education and engagement initiatives.

Chiliz, through its Socios.com platform, has launched fan tokens tied to national teams including Argentina and Portugal. These tokens enable sentiment-driven trading linked to match outcomes and player performances. In practice, that means a last-minute Argentina winner could move the ARG fan token price within minutes.

Avalanche serves as the blockchain partner behind FIFA’s digital collectibles program, providing the infrastructure on which FIFA-branded digital items are minted, traded, and stored.

What this means for crypto investors

Chiliz stands to benefit most directly from the tournament’s day-to-day action. Fan tokens are inherently tied to match results, and a tournament with 48 teams playing across multiple time zones creates near-continuous trading opportunities. The risk is that fan token trading volumes tend to spike during major events and then crater once the tournament ends.

For Avalanche, the value proposition is less about short-term token price and more about ecosystem credibility. Successfully powering a digital collectibles platform at World Cup scale would serve as a compelling case study for enterprise adoption.

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