England just did something at Estadio Azteca that no English squad had managed in a competitive match before: win. The Three Lions beat Mexico 3-2 in the Round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on July 5, sending the co-hosts packing from their own tournament in one of football’s most storied cathedrals.

The match and the money

Harry Kane converted a penalty and Jude Bellingham scored twice to secure England’s passage to the quarterfinals. Mexico, playing at the venue that hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals, couldn’t hold on despite the altitude advantage of over 2,200 meters and a crowd that desperately wanted a different outcome.

For English football, the Azteca has always carried a complicated legacy. Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal happened there in 1986. Winning a competitive fixture at the ground rewrites at least a small chapter of that history.

Trading volumes for CHZ, the token powering the Chiliz fan token ecosystem, spiked during the knockout stage. Polymarket, the prediction market built on crypto rails, also saw increased betting activity around the England-Mexico result.

FIFA and Kraken: the bigger picture

On June 9, 2026, FIFA announced that Kraken would become its first-ever Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the World Cup. The Kraken partnership includes trading promotions and Bitcoin rewards tied to key tournament moments.

Avalanche’s blockchain was used in a ticketing pilot designed to curb fraud and scalping at the tournament.

What this means for crypto investors

FIFA choosing Kraken as its first crypto exchange partner legitimizes the category in a way that a hundred Twitter threads cannot. When viewers encounter Bitcoin rewards and trading promotions baked into the tournament experience, it normalizes crypto ownership for an audience that skews far more mainstream than the typical DeFi degen.

Chiliz has been building its fan token ecosystem for years, partnering with clubs across European football, and the World Cup is the biggest stage the model has ever had.

Ticketing fraud at major events costs consumers and organizers billions annually. If blockchain-based ticketing proves it can reduce scalping at the world’s biggest sporting event, the technology has a clear path into concerts, conferences, and every other live event vertical.