Argentina’s fan token surges as Messi leads 2026 World Cup scoring despite missing 2 penalties

Lionel Messi has scored 8 goals at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, leading the tournament’s scoring charts despite the minor inconvenience of missing two penalties along the way.

The Argentina national team fan token ($ARG), which runs on the Chiliz blockchain, has surged as much as 12.4% following Messi’s standout performances at the tournament.

Messi’s paradoxical penalty record

He missed a penalty against Austria earlier in the competition, then had another saved by Egypt’s goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir in early July. That makes him the first player in World Cup history to lead the scoring charts while missing two penalties in the same tournament. Across his entire World Cup career, Messi has now taken 8 penalties and missed 4, giving him the dubious distinction of holding the record for most missed penalties in tournament history.

Messi has collected a tournament-high four man-of-the-match awards during the 2026 World Cup.

How Messi’s goals are moving the $ARG token

The $ARG fan token saw a 6% jump in late June tied to Argentina’s progress through the group stages. As Messi kept scoring and collecting individual awards, that momentum intensified, with spikes reaching up to 12.4%.

Fan tokens on the Chiliz blockchain function as a kind of speculative loyalty currency. Holders get access to polls, rewards, and engagement features tied to their team, but the real action is in the trading.

Fan tokens saw massive volume spikes during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with the $ARG token experiencing dramatic swings during Argentina’s eventual title run. The 2026 edition, co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States with an expanded 48-team format, has brought even more global attention and trading activity to these assets.

Panini, the Italian collectibles company synonymous with World Cup sticker albums since the 1970s, has also entered the mix by releasing blockchain-based NFT trading cards featuring Messi for the 2026 tournament.

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