UFC star Conor McGregor criticized former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov for his non-fungible token (NFT) drop on Telegram, which featured digital “papakhas” — a conventional hat worn in Nurmagomedov’s native nation of Dagestan.
“There’s simply no manner good man Khabib used his late father’s identify, in addition to Dagestan’s tradition, to rip-off his followers and hearth promote a bunch of digital NFTs on-line,” McGregor wrote in a now-deleted X submit.
Onchain sleuth ZachXBT responded to McGregor, declaring that McGregor tried to launch his personal movie star memecoin in April referred to as REAL. ZachXBT stated:
“There’s simply no manner good man McGregor used his status, in addition to Irish tradition, to rip-off his followers and hearth promote a bunch of digital tokens on-line after which delete all the posts after they have been offered, leaving his followers robbed of their cash?”
McGregor’s REAL token was supplied to potential patrons in a sealed-bid public sale to stop snipers and automatic buying and selling bots from manipulating costs at launch. It featured staking rewards for holders, nevertheless it solely managed to boost 39% of its goal launch aim.
The funds that have been raised have been refunded to individuals following the failed launch, in accordance with McGregor. The failure of the token was because of a number of components, together with a broad downturn within the crypto market on the time and a memecoin bear market.
Associated: NFT and memecoin markets get well after month-long crypto hunch
Memecoins have fallen from grace, however will they return?
Memecoins have been one of many hottest narratives and best-performing sectors within the crypto market in 2024. Nevertheless, the parabolic run loved by memecoins got here to a screeching halt in 2025.
The decline of memecoins adopted a number of high-profile launches that plummeted in worth virtually instantly after launch or have been characterised as a rug pull, together with tasks endorsed by US President Donald Trump and Argentina’s President Javier Milei.
Memecoins fell to a market cap of $39.4 billion on Friday, reaching the bottom stage on document in 2025 and shedding as much as $5 billion in in the future, in accordance with CoinMarketCap.
Journal: Memecoins: Betrayal of crypto’s beliefs… or its true goal?
