高额赞助消失、Kalshi蹭广告，这届世界杯加密赞助都去哪了？

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Golem (@web3_golem)

This week, as the 2026 FIFA World Cup enters the knockout stage, attention has further intensified. According to Forbes, approximately three-quarters of the global population, over 6 billion people, are watching or participating in this event.

Capturing the attention of the majority of the world's population on a single screen at the same time represents a massive and scarce advertising resource for businesses, especially those operating internationally. FIFA is estimated to generate record revenue from this World Cup, with marketing and sponsorship contracts alone expected to bring in approximately $2.5 to $3 billion, compared to $1.8 billion in sponsorship revenue for the 2022 World Cup.

Such enormous exposure is equally crucial for crypto companies, but within FIFA's official sponsorship structure this year, crypto companies seem to have collectively gone incognito.

FIFA's sponsorship is divided into three tiers: the first tier consists of multi-year partners (Lenovo, Coca-Cola, Visa, etc.), the second tier is global sponsors for the 2026 World Cup only (Hisense, McDonald's, Mengniu, etc.), and the third tier includes regional and event supplier sponsorships (such as Airbnb, American Airlines, etc.). In the crypto sector, only Kraken has entered FIFA's official sponsorship system this year as the official crypto exchange sponsor for North America and Europe, belonging to the third-tier event supplier category. Its rights include not only on-pitch grass advertising display but also fan engagement activities in 16 World Cup host cities.

Kraken appears on the perimeter advertising boards outside the World Cup pitch grass

Previously, in the 2022 FIFA World Cup sponsorship system, Crypto.com signed on as a second-tier sponsor, becoming the only crypto exchange platform sponsor for that World Cup. Meanwhile, the public chain Algorand also sponsored as the official blockchain platform. Other crypto companies were even willing to spend heavily on sponsoring clubs and star players.

By comparison, it seems crypto sponsors this year are not buying in. However, they haven't disappeared; they've just gotten smarter this cycle. Instead of paying for the large yet unwieldy official FIFA exposure, they've gone down to "traffic nodes" such as national teams and star players, which come with massive built-in fan bases and high betting odds.

Crypto Companies Become Main Sponsors of Regions and Star Players

FIFA's高昂 sponsorship fees have become less justifiable for crypto companies. Estimated second-tier sponsorship agreements typically range between $65 million and $95 million, while first-tier partner sponsorship amounts are significantly higher. At these prices, companies can already secure top-tier sponsorship rights in the club and star player arena, with efficiency in reaching World Cup fans potentially no worse than official sponsorship.

OKX Becomes Main Sponsor of Manchester City

The most representative example is OKX. In football sponsorship, OKX has invested heavily in Premier League giant Manchester City and also locked in top football star Erling Haaland.

OKX's partnership with Manchester City began in March 2022 and has now become one of City's core sponsors, occupying the sleeve sponsor positions for both the men's and women's first teams (Odaily Note: Reports indicate OKX paid Manchester City over $70 million during the three-year partnership). Previously, OKX held the front-of-training-kit sponsorship for City's men's and women's first teams.

Haaland wears a jersey with the OKX logo at the World Cup

Beyond brand exposure at the club level, OKX clearly understands the viral effect of "star player personal IP" on social media. Erling Haaland, Manchester City's star player, possesses immense appeal both on and off the pitch. As a City player, Haaland frequently appears in various OKX official marketing materials, with his image integrated into global advertising campaigns for OKX's Web3 wallet, trading products, and more.

Haaland appears in OKX product promotional shorts

Binance Ties Up with Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo

Unlike OKX, which gains access to star player influence indirectly through club sponsorship, Binance chose to directly tie up with a football superstar individual. Binance's partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo began in mid-2022, marking a long-term exclusive cooperation agreement. Binance not only secured Ronaldo's image rights and brand endorsement but also included social media promotion and even an NFT collaboration series at the time.

In November 2022, Binance launched the CR7 NFT series, featuring seven dynamic images of Ronaldo with different rarity levels. However, this activity left Ronaldo with legal liabilities. In late 2023, US investors filed a class-action lawsuit against Ronaldo seeking $1 billion in compensation, alleging that his promotion of Binance NFTs misled investors. The lawsuit currently has no further developments.

Nevertheless, the partnership between Ronaldo and Binance has not been interrupted. Ronaldo continues to appear in Binance's global advertisements, video campaigns, and other exposures.

Ronaldo gives an interview wearing a Binance T-shirt before this World Cup

However, this partnership began during the previous World Cup, and Binance has actually made few new moves in football sponsorship in recent years. At the national team level, Binance had signed a five-year contract with the Argentine Football Association in 2022, but unilaterally terminated it on July 17, 2023, citing disputes over product delivery that led to the breakdown of the relationship. The contract was reportedly valued at around $8 million per year. This experience may also be why Binance has not expanded its football sponsorship in recent years.

Argentine Football Association Holds Over 6 Crypto Sponsorships

However, the breakdown with Binance hasn't dampened the Argentine Football Association's enthusiasm for accepting crypto company sponsorships. In fact, it currently holds the most crypto company sponsorships among football associations, fully capitalizing on various second-tier exchanges and crypto platforms eager to attract user deposits:

• LBank: In September 2025, LBank signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association, becoming a regional sponsor of the Argentine national football team. When officially announcing the partnership, LBank also launched a $100 million prize pool to support event promotion.

LBank joint event with the Argentine Football Association

• Crypto lending institution Nexo signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association on April 14, 2026, becoming its official digital asset partner for South/Latin America.
• BTCC signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association on April 2, 2026, becoming its official regional partner.
• XBO.com signed a one-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association in 2025, becoming its official global sponsor for 2025, focusing on 2025 events and the 2026 World Cup preparation period.
• Crypto derivatives exchange Deepcoin signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association in March 2026, becoming its official regional sponsor, specifically covering Asian/regional markets such as Vietnam and Taiwan.
• ATFX signed a multi-year cooperation agreement with the Argentine Football Association in January 2026, becoming its official regional sponsor.

Bitget Deeply Binds with Messi

Similar to Binance's strategy, although Bitget hasn't sponsored the Argentine Football Association, it has directly tied up with football superstar Lionel Messi. In 2022, Bitget announced a partnership with Messi, appointing him as its global brand ambassador. Leveraging Messi's number 10 jersey and Bitget's then-prominent copy trading products, it conducted global brand promotion. Since Messi ultimately led Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup, this partnership became a classic case in Bitget's brand development history.

Currently, the partnership hasn't ended; Messi continues to appear in Bitget's global advertisements, brand videos, and other promotions. However, the drawback of this personal endorsement is that Bitget's logo cannot accompany Messi onto the pitch and appear on camera.

Bitget Global Brand Ambassador Messi

Kalshi Hitching a Ride on Ads

Attentive World Cup viewers may have noticed the name of prediction market Kalshi appearing on the pitch-side perimeter advertising. The quadrennial World Cup presents a rare development opportunity for all prediction market projects. Every team is doing extensive promotion and a series of activities around the World Cup, but Kalshi is the only prediction market project to appear on screen during the World Cup.

However, Kalshi is not within FIFA's official sponsorship system. Reportedly, Kalshi even rejected a sponsorship offer from FIFA of approximately $150 million. So how did it manage to appear?

Kalshi appears on World Cup pitch-side advertising

This goes back to ADI Predictstreet. On April 2, 2026, ADI PredictStreet became FIFA's sole official World Cup prediction market partner. So, on June 26, the "savvy" Kalshi announced a strategic brand and product partnership with ADI Predictstreet. The brand cooperation mainly involved entering the knockout stage: Kalshi would share advertising space with ADI Predictstreet for joint brand promotion on stadium venues, television, and online platforms.

Therefore, as shown in the image above, Kalshi was able to appear alongside ADI Predictstreet on the advertising boards surrounding the pitch. According to reports, to have the Kalshi logo appear alongside ADI Predictstreet during matches, Kalshi paid ADI Predictstreet approximately $20 million. Compared to FIFA's $150 million sponsorship quote, Kalshi's "indirect approach" achieved more cost-effective exposure.

Why the Shift?

Crypto companies' sponsorship of the World Cup hasn't completely disappeared. They've simply realized that for the unique crypto industry, rather than blindly seeking "ineffective exposure" in official events, partnering and interacting with top-tier popular football IPs yields brand benefits no less than the World Cup itself, while spending less.

However, in terms of timing and signings, compared to the previous World Cup, new signings for this tournament have notably decreased. Many crypto companies' football sponsorships began in 2022, and they haven't increased their commitments in recent years.

On one hand, this is closely related to the industry environment. Around 2022, the crypto market was still in a bull run, with Bitcoin hitting an all-time high in November 2021. The industry direction of "mass adoption" hadn't collapsed yet, naturally leading to a flood of crypto funds into sports sponsorships. But fast forward to 2026, whether in market conditions or industry confidence, everything seems illusory, like a flower in a mirror or the moon's reflection in water.

On the other hand, top-tier, profitable crypto companies are also gradually becoming disenchanted with sponsoring such major international events. In April this year, Bybit CEO Ben explained for the first time why the company chose not to renew its Red Bull F1 sponsorship contract. He stated that the commercial value of F1 sponsorship has been declining year by year, while the costs of activating all sponsorship rights keep rising. Simply maintaining the execution team could far exceed the sponsorship fee. He also pointed out that the annual guest list had become rigid, filled with "personal connections," leading some to expect automatic invitations, and failing to invite them could actually harm the business.

The dilemma Bybit faced with F1 sponsorship might also be the dilemma crypto companies currently face with World Cup sponsorship. For crypto companies increasingly emphasizing ROI in the current market environment, spending tens of millions of dollars on an "official partnership identity" seems less appealing than allocating the budget towards a championship team, a superstar, or even secretly "hitching a ride" on a pitch-side advertising board.

The World Cup remains the world's top traffic platform. Crypto companies haven't left the World Cup; their investment logic has simply shifted from blindly displaying "financial firepower" to more distributed, low-key, and effective collaborations.