UFC star Conor McGregor criticized his former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov for his non-fungible token (NFT) on Telegram, which featured digital “pakhas” – a traditional hat worn in Nurmagomedov’s home country of Dagestan.
“There is simply no way Khabib, a good guy, would have used his late father’s name, as well as the culture of Dagestan, to scam his fans and sell a bunch of digital NFTs online,” McGregor wrote in a now-deleted X post.
Detective Onchain ZachXBT answered to McGregor, pointing out that McGregor had attempted to launch your own celebrity memecoin in April called REAL. ZachXBT said:
“There is simply no way McGregor could use his reputation, as well as Irish culture, to scam his fans and sell a bunch of digital tokens online, then delete all the posts after they were sold, leaving his fans deprived of their money?”
McGregor’s REAL token was offered to potential buyers in a sealed auction to prevent snipers and automated trading bots from manipulating prices at launch. It offered staking rewards to holders, but it only managed to reach 39% of its launch goal.
Funds raised were refunded to participants following the failed launch, according to McGregor. The token’s failure was due to several factors, including a widespread downturn in the crypto market at the time and a memecoin bear market.
Related: NFT and memecoin markets recover after month-long crypto crisis
Memecoins have fallen out of favor, but will they come back?
Coins were one of the hottest stories and the best performing sectors of the crypto market in 2024. However, the parabolic run enjoyed by memecoins came to an abrupt halt in 2025.
The decline of memecoins follows several high-profile launches that dropped in value almost immediately after launch or were characterized as carpet tractionincluding projects supported by US President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei.
Memecoins fell to a market cap of $39.4 billion on Friday, hitting the lowest level ever in 2025 and lose up to $5 billion in one day, depending on CoinMarketCap.
Review: Memecoins: betrayal of the ideals of crypto… or its true objective?
