FIFA deploys Avalanche blockchain to curb $25M in World Cup scalping

FIFA has deployed the Avalanche blockchain through its FIFA Collect platform to issue digital ticket rights for the 2026 World Cup, generating over $25 million in secondary-market volume as the organization seeks to capture resale activity that typically flows to third-party marketplaces.

"It's a little bit of the Taylor Swift problem," Dominic Carbonaro, who leads the consumer enterprise vertical at Ava Labs, the main developer firm supporting Avalanche, said. "Concert gets announced, huge influx of buying comes in, primarily from bots. They buy all the tickets, and then the secondary market sales happen."

The system, built on a customizable Avalanche Layer-1 blockchain known as the FIFA blockchain with technology from Modex, uses two digital instruments: a Right-to-Buy (RTB) and a Right-to-Ticket (RTT). Neither is the ticket itself. An RTB gives fans priority access to purchase a specific match ticket before public sale, while an RTT is created when an RTB is redeemed and can be used to buy the official ticket through FIFA's existing infrastructure. More than 100,000 RTBs have been issued, and over 50,000 Club World Cup tickets have been distributed in bundles with RTBs. Secondary-market volume for RTTs alone has surpassed $15 million, with combined RTB and RTT volume exceeding $25 million, according to figures shared by Ava Labs.

The model shifts where secondary-market value accrues. Traditionally, event organizers sell tickets at face value while companies such as StubHub, SeatGeek and Vivid Seats capture the upside from surging demand. FIFA's approach brings that activity into its own ecosystem, giving the organization visibility into who ultimately attends its events — data that typically sits with third-party platforms. "The tickets are now 100 percent verifiable onchain, so it reduces all types of fraud, fake secondary sales," Carbonaro said.

How the system works

FIFA Collect, the federation's digital collectibles and fan platform, serves as the entry point. Fans acquire RTBs through the platform and can trade them on secondary markets at market value. Once redeemed, the RTB converts into an RTT, which grants access to purchase an official match ticket through FIFA's existing ticketing infrastructure. The actual match tickets remain issued through FIFA's traditional system, with blockchain handling verification and asset ownership in the background.

"We want to deliver Web2 experiences with blockchain underneath," Carbonaro said. "The user should not even know they're using blockchain."

The 2026 World Cup spans 104 matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada, making it one of the largest live-event tests of blockchain-based ticketing. Separately, FIFA named Kraken its first Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the tournament on June 9, 2026, in a partnership involving fan engagement initiatives alongside the Avalanche blockchain integration.

For Ava Labs, the project represents a shift from speculative NFT applications toward infrastructure that solves a measurable business problem. The numbers — $25 million in secondary volume across more than 100,000 digital entitlements — provide a data point for how blockchain can function as a verification layer in large-scale events without requiring end users to interact directly with crypto.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.