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Two of football’s biggest stars, who happen to be close friends, are about to face off in a World Cup quarterfinal. And the crypto market is treating it like an earnings call.
Kylian Mbappé’s France will meet Achraf Hakimi’s Morocco on July 9 in Boston, a rematch of their 2022 World Cup semifinal. The two players famously call each other “brothers,” having bonded during their time together at Paris Saint-Germain. But the more interesting subplot for digital asset watchers is what’s happening on-chain: Solana-based meme tokens tied to both players are seeing notable trading surges, and Mbappé’s NFT cards on the Sorare platform continue to command prices in the tens of thousands of dollars.
When athletes become ticker symbols
The $MBAPPE meme token on Solana became infamous in 2024 after a hack of Mbappé’s X account was used to artificially inflate the token’s market cap to $464 million before it collapsed spectacularly.
Hakimi-related tokens, including $HAKIMI on Solana, have seen their own trading spikes during this tournament. Morocco’s captain has become a rallying point for fans who apparently express national pride through both jersey purchases and token buys. The pattern is consistent: when a player performs well on the pitch, trading volume on their associated tokens jumps. When they don’t, it evaporates.
Mbappé became an ambassador and investor for Sorare, the Ethereum-based NFT fantasy sports platform, back in June 2022. Sorare lets users buy, sell, and trade digital player cards that function within a fantasy football game. Rare Mbappé NFTs on the platform have sold for tens of thousands of dollars, making them some of the most valuable digital collectibles in the sports category.
Mbappé has been vocal about Web3 education initiatives, positioning himself as one of the few elite athletes who actually engaged with the underlying technology rather than simply lending a face to a product.
The World Cup effect on digital assets
Sorare’s model illustrates how platforms are capitalizing on this dynamic. By tying digital card values to real-world athletic performance, the platform creates a feedback loop where on-pitch success directly impacts asset prices.
What this means for crypto investors
The $MBAPPE token hack demonstrated how quickly celebrity-adjacent speculation can turn catastrophic. A token reaching a $464 million market cap on the back of a compromised social media account is the kind of event that makes regulators reach for their pens.
The more durable opportunity may lie in platforms like Sorare that have built actual product utility around sports NFTs. Fantasy sports engagement creates recurring demand for cards, giving them a use case beyond pure speculation.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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