The FBI has seized more than 700 drones since the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 11, making it the largest federal drone enforcement operation in American history. The crackdown spans all 11 US host cities, and the numbers keep climbing.

Most of the operators caught weren’t terrorists or spies. They were real estate photographers and hobbyists trying to grab aerial footage of packed stadiums.

The scope of the crackdown

Miami leads the seizure count at 99 drones, followed by Atlanta at 86 and Dallas at 63. Los Angeles recorded 48 seizures, while Kansas City tallied 32 total, including 8 in a single day on June 16.

The FBI is running this operation alongside the Department of Homeland Security, the FAA, the Federal Air Marshal Service, and local police departments across the country.

The enforcement targets violations of temporary flight restrictions, which prohibit drone operations near stadiums and fan events during the tournament. The total seizure count jumped from roughly 300 to over 700 within just a few weeks.

Few prosecutions have been announced publicly, and the agencies have not released specifics on drone models or the ultimate legal fate of operators.

Where crypto fits into a story about drones

Kraken is the official crypto exchange partner of the event, and the tournament is using the Avalanche blockchain to power its ticketing system. The goal is reducing scalping and fraud.

Sports ticketing has historically been a black market nightmare, with resale prices spiraling beyond reach and counterfeit tickets causing real headaches at gates. Blockchain-based ticketing creates a verifiable ownership trail that is genuinely hard to fake.

What this means for crypto investors and the broader market

For investors watching this space, the World Cup deployment is a live stress test for blockchain ticketing at maximum scale. Running Avalanche-based ticketing across 11 cities simultaneously is the kind of real-world pressure that either validates a technology or exposes its limits.

Kraken’s role as official exchange partner also carries weight. The exchange has navigated a complicated regulatory environment in the US, and landing an official partnership with the world’s most-watched sporting event signals a degree of institutional legitimacy that the broader industry has been chasing.