The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 11 at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium with a match that will be remembered less for the scoreline and more for the carnage. Mexico beat South Africa 2-0, but the real headline was three red cards in a single opening fixture, a record for World Cup openers.

For the crypto industry, the timing is notable. FIFA’s freshly minted partnerships with Kraken and blockchain-based prediction platform ADI Predictstreet mean that digital assets are getting prime-time exposure in front of the biggest audience on the planet.

A match that went sideways fast

Mexico’s Julián Quiñones opened the tournament’s scoring in the 9th minute, giving the home crowd at the Azteca exactly what they came for.

South Africa’s Sphephelo Sithole was sent off in the 49th minute, just four minutes after the restart. Raúl Jiménez doubled Mexico’s lead in the 67th minute. Themba Zwane, also of South Africa, picked up the match’s second red card in the 84th minute, reducing his side to nine men. Mexico’s César Montes was dismissed in the 90+2 minute of stoppage time. Referee Wilton Pereira Sampaio officiated the match.

Kraken and ADI Predictstreet enter the FIFA arena

Two days before kickoff, on June 9, Kraken was announced as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the 2026 World Cup. The partnership is designed to drive fan engagement through activations across North America and Europe.

Alongside Kraken, ADI Predictstreet was named the Official Prediction Market Partner of the tournament. The platform uses Chainlink oracles to feed real-time match data into its prediction markets, with its native $ADI token serving as the backbone for user participation.

The broader ecosystem around the tournament also involves Chiliz fan tokens and Avalanche blockchain infrastructure, reinforcing the multi-chain approach FIFA appears to be taking with its digital asset strategy.