The Esports World Cup Valorant 2026 championship wrapped up on July 12 in Paris with 100 Thieves lifting the trophy after a 2-1 grand final victory over NRG. But for the crypto industry, the more consequential win happened before a single round was played: Coinbase and Bitget became the first licensed cryptocurrency exchanges to officially sponsor the EWC.

What happened on the server

100 Thieves carved a methodical path through the bracket. The organization opened its knockout run with a 2-1 quarterfinal win over MIBR on July 10. A day later, they edged out Nongshim RedForce by the same 2-1 scoreline in the semifinals.

The grand final against NRG followed the same script. Another 2-1 series in a best-of-five…