Mauricio Pochettino does not want to hear the word “underdog.” The US Men’s National Team head coach, appointed on September 10, 2024, is actively pushing back against the idea that a host nation with growing soccer infrastructure should be written off before the tournament even starts. His message to American fans has been simple: “Why not us?”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, will be the largest edition in the tournament’s history, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 venues from June 11 to July 11. And the crypto industry is treating it like the Super Bowl of adoption events.

From bochas courts to the biggest stage in sports

Pochettino’s connection to the World Cup is deeply personal. He traces it back to 1978, when he was a six-year-old in Murphy, Santa Fe, Argentina, watching the tournament on one of the few color television sets in a small club where old folk played bochas, a kind of boules.

Pochettino succeeded Gregg Berhalter as head coach. The Argentine manager previously led Tottenham Hotspur to a Champions League final and managed Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.

Kraken, Chiliz, and crypto’s World Cup play

On June 9, 2026, Kraken was announced as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the FIFA World Cup. The partnership is designed to boost crypto adoption among European and North American football fans.

Chiliz, the company behind the Socios fan token platform, is investing between $50 million and $100 million to re-enter the US market, with a specific focus on national team engagement through fan tokens.

Fan tokens let supporters vote on minor club or national team decisions, access exclusive content, and signal allegiance in a way that feels native to crypto culture. The Argentina fan token, ARG, recently traded around $0.41 with a market cap of approximately $7.5 million. Portugal’s POR token has also seen increased transaction activity as the tournament approaches.

Why this matters for crypto investors

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw a spike in fan token volumes before regulatory headwinds and the broader crypto winter dampened enthusiasm. Kraken attaching its name to FIFA is the kind of mainstream validation that would have been unthinkable during the industry’s reputational low point following the FTX collapse.

Chiliz’s investment range of $50 million to $100 million signals confidence that fan tokens can become a durable product category. If Socios can successfully onboard American sports fans already accustomed to fantasy sports, NFT collectibles, and in-app microtransactions, the addressable market expands significantly.

Fan tokens have faced criticism for offering limited governance rights and functioning primarily as speculative vehicles. If the World Cup bump in trading volume doesn’t translate into sustained engagement, these tokens could see the same post-event drawdowns that plagued them in 2022.