FIFA World Cup crypto scams are already live as the 2026 tournament begins, with TRM Labs tracking fan-branded memecoin risks.
TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence firm, said in a Thursday report, June 11, it identified that World Cup scam addresses have received less than $1,700 so far, but the infrastructure is already in place as the 2026 tournament gets underway.
According to TRM Labs, scammers often build up website and social media accounts in preparation for large events, and ramp up efforts to promote them when there is high demand among fans.
Per the report, the strongest on-chain evidence so far came from phishing sites offering fake World Cup tickets and scams related to fixed-matches.
For example, one of the fake ticketing operations used a Polygon-based address that collected approximately $1,562, nearly all of which was collected in April.
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Bridges Hide Scam Proceeds
In addition, the California-based forensic firm revealed that crypto scams were using cross-chain bridges between networks, as well as crypto exchanges, to make transactions harder to trace.
In one fake ticket case, the firm traced funds from Polygon through several swaps before the money ended up on TRON, a Layer-1 blockchain network.
TRM Labs also identified a fixed-match betting scam tied to a Bitcoin address that received small payments across four days between January and May, saying the payments looked consistent with one victim at a time.
The report flagged fan-branded memecoins, including WORLDCUP, a so-called commemorative token listed on the LBank crypto exchange and framed as unaffiliated with FIFA.
The firm warned more World Cup crypto scams could emerge soon as the tournament continues, including fake live-streaming sites, deepfake impersonations, fake token launches, accommodation fraud and crypto gambling schemes.
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