England’s Marc Guehi has cleared a fitness test and is set to start alongside John Stones in the World Cup quarter-final against Norway. That’s the football news. Here’s the other story running parallel to it.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup has quietly become one of the most crypto-adjacent sporting events in recent memory, with exchange sponsorships, NFT collectibles, player brand deals, and volatile fan tokens all converging around the tournament’s biggest matches.

The official crypto layer

Kraken was named the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 9, 2026.

Meanwhile, John Stones, one of England’s starting center-backs, is a brand ambassador for Axi, a CFD trading platform that…