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Wednesday Nov 26 2025 22:10
2 min
UFC star Conor McGregor has ignited a controversy by criticizing his former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov for his non-fungible token (NFT) drop on Telegram. The NFT collection featured digital representations of "papakhas," traditional hats worn in Nurmagomedov's native Dagestan.
In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), McGregor wrote, "There is just no way good guy Khabib used his late father’s name, as well as Dagestan’s culture, to scam his fans and fire sell a bunch of digital NFTs online."
Onchain sleuth ZachXBT swiftly responded to McGregor, pointing out McGregor's own failed attempt to launch a celebrity memecoin called REAL in April. ZachXBT sarcastically retorted, "There is just no way good guy McGregor used his reputation, as well as Irish culture, to scam his fans and fire sell a bunch of digital tokens online and then delete all of the posts after they were sold, leaving his fans robbed of their money?"
McGregor's REAL token was offered to prospective buyers in a sealed-bid auction to prevent algorithmic trading bots from manipulating prices upon launch. It featured staking rewards for holders, but only managed to raise 39% of its target launch goal. According to McGregor, the funds raised were refunded to participants following the unsuccessful launch. The token's failure has been attributed to multiple factors, including a general downturn in the crypto market and a prevailing memecoin bear market.
Memecoins were a dominant narrative and top-performing sector in the cryptocurrency market during 2024. However, the exponential growth experienced by memecoins came to an abrupt halt in 2025.
The decline in memecoins followed several high-profile launches that plummeted in value almost immediately after launch or were flagged as fraudulent schemes, including projects endorsed by figures such as former U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentinian President Javier Milei.
The total market capitalization of memecoins dropped to $39.4 billion on Friday, reaching a record low for 2025 and shedding as much as $5 billion in a single day, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Risk Warning: this article represents only the author’s views and is for reference only. It does not constitute investment advice or financial guidance, nor does it represent the stance of the Markets.com platform.When considering shares, indices, forex (foreign exchange) and commodities for trading and price predictions, remember that trading CFDs involves a significant degree of risk and could result in capital loss.Past performance is not indicative of any future results. This information is provided for informative purposes only and should not be construed to be investment advice. Trading cryptocurrency CFDs and spread bets is restricted for all UK retail clients.
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