Belgium’s ‘Revoca esto’ taunt after eliminating US from World Cup spotlights crypto’s biggest sports bet yet

Belgium dismantled the United States 4-1 on July 6, knocking the co-host out of its own World Cup. Then the Belgian team twisted the knife with a two-word Spanish phrase aimed squarely at the controversy swirling around the match: “Revoca esto.” Revoke this.

Kraken, Avalanche, and crypto’s World Cup play

Back on June 9, Kraken announced it had become FIFA’s first-ever Official Crypto Exchange Supporter. That deal made the San Francisco-based exchange the tournament’s crypto face, plastered across broadcasts reaching billions of viewers.

FIFA’s own digital collectibles platform, FIFA Collect, runs on a dedicated Avalanche blockchain. The platform handles digital memorabilia and has been integrated into ticketing infrastructure for the tournament.

Prediction markets hit $2 billion and counting

Prediction-market volume linked to the 2026 World Cup has surpassed $2 billion. That figure encompasses platforms where users bet on match outcomes, group stage qualifications, and tournament winners using crypto-native rails.

To put that in perspective, Polymarket, the largest prediction market platform, saw roughly $3.5 billion in total volume across all categories during the entire 2024 US presidential election cycle.

National-team fan tokens have also been actively trading throughout the tournament. These tokens, many built on the Chiliz blockchain, give holders access to governance-lite features like voting on team merchandise designs or walkout songs.

The risk, as always, is regulatory. Prediction markets sit in legal gray zones across multiple jurisdictions, and in the US, the CFTC has already shown interest in policing these markets.

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