The 2026 FIFA World Cup has its finalists. Spain dismantled France 2-0 in Dallas on July 14, with goals from Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro doing the damage. A day later in Atlanta, Argentina came from a goal down to beat England 2-1, with Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez scoring late to send the defending champions through.

The final is Argentina versus Spain.

What happened on the pitch

Spain’s win over France was clinical. Oyarzabal and Porro provided the goals, and France, for all their talent, couldn’t find a way through a disciplined Spanish backline.

Argentina’s path was messier. England took the lead, and for a stretch it looked like a famous upset was brewing. Then Fernández equalized, Martínez converted the winner late, and the Albiceleste were through.

The 2026 edition is already historic before a ball is kicked in the final. This is the largest World Cup in history, featuring 48 teams across a three-nation host arrangement involving Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

FIFA’s crypto strategy is no longer experimental

FIFA has shifted to a proprietary approach, running its FIFA Collect NFT platform on a blockchain built on Avalanche technology. FIFA is no longer renting space on someone else’s blockchain. It built its own lane, using Avalanche as the foundation, and is using that infrastructure to sell digital collectibles and create fan experiences directly.

The earlier Algorand partnership represented FIFA’s first serious foray into this space, but the move to a proprietary Avalanche-based chain signals something more permanent.

Kraken’s sponsorship and the broader crypto-sports overlap

Kraken was named the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the 2026 World Cup, with the partnership announced on June 9, 2026. The deal includes promotions and fan engagement activations, among them Bitcoin giveaways directed at tournament audiences.

On the more speculative end of the spectrum, Solana-based memecoins with World Cup themes have surfaced around the tournament. Tokens like W26 and FWC26 have attracted trading activity, though neither carries any official FIFA affiliation. These tokens exist in the same category as any event-adjacent memecoin: high volatility, thin liquidity, and a lifespan that tends to correlate with how long the event stays in the news cycle.

What this means for the crypto market

FIFA’s decision to build on Avalanche rather than Ethereum or Solana is a meaningful data point for anyone tracking which Layer 1 networks are winning enterprise and institutional adoption.

The Kraken partnership demonstrates that crypto exchanges are willing and able to compete for premier global sponsorship inventory. A major exchange is now sitting alongside legacy corporate sponsors at a FIFA World Cup.