As the 2026 FIFA World Cup unfolds across North America, one of blockchain’s most practical real-world deployments is taking shape behind the scenes. FIFA Collect, the federation’s digital collectibles and fan platform, is working with Avalanche and Modex to support a ticketing structure designed to address some of the biggest pain points in sports ticket sales: bots, fraud, and runaway secondary-market pricing.
The system runs on a customizable Avalanche Layer-1 network referred to as the FIFA blockchain. Rather than placing the ticket itself on-chain, the model centers on two digital rights: Right-to-Buy (RTB) and Right-to-Ticket (RTT). An RTB gives a fan priority access to purchase a specific ticket before public release and can be traded on secondary markets. Once redeemed, the RTB converts into an RTT, which then allows the user to proceed through FIFA’s existing official ticketing infrastructure to buy the actual match ticket.
On-chain verification targets scalping and fake listings
The broader objective is to move resale activity away from loosely controlled third-party marketplaces and into an environment governed by FIFA. Ava Labs executive Dominic Carbonaro compared the issue to the familiar pattern seen in major concert launches, where bots rush in at release, absorb supply, and push resale activity into external venues. In this framework, RTBs and RTTs are intended to shift that resale layer into a controlled, verifiable system.
According to figures shared by Ava Labs, the network has already issued more than 100,000 RTBs. In addition, over 50,000 Club World Cup tickets have been distributed in bundles with RTBs. Secondary-market volume for RTTs has surpassed $15 million, while combined RTB and RTT volume has exceeded $25 million. Those figures stand out because they point to a blockchain application tied to an actual consumer product, rather than a purely speculative crypto use case.
Blockchain in the background, familiar UX in the foreground
For Ava Labs, the emphasis is less on the NFT label and more on infrastructure. The goal is to preserve a familiar Web2-style consumer experience while blockchain quietly handles verification, ownership records, and transferability underneath. Fans do not necessarily need to know they are using blockchain for the system to benefit from it.
Importantly, the final match tickets are still issued through FIFA’s traditional ticketing stack. The blockchain layer currently manages the rights, the conversion process, and the traceability around access to purchase. Carbonaro said this makes the relevant ticketing process 100% verifiable on-chain, reducing the risk of fraud, fake resale offers, and questionable listings. For an event with global demand and a long history of ticket scams, that added verifiability could be significant.
A fan tool, but also a control mechanism for FIFA
The model may offer fans more certainty than lotteries or long digital queues, since tradable rights can provide a clearer path to purchase. But the benefits for FIFA go further. By bringing more resale behavior into its own ecosystem, the organization gains tighter oversight over ticket flows, fan data, and related commercial operations. In that sense, the Avalanche-powered ticketing experiment is not only a consumer-facing anti-scalping tool, but also part of FIFA’s broader strategy to strengthen control over the World Cup experience.