Conor McGregor calls out Khabib over NFTs, gets shut down by ZachXBT

UFC star Conor McGregor went after his former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov for dropping NFTs on Telegram — digital papakhas, the traditional Dagestani hat. McGregor posted (and then deleted): "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."

But on-chain detective ZachXBT wasn't having it. He clapped back, pointing out McGregor's own failed celebrity memecoin REAL from April. ZachXBT quoted McGregor's own words right back at him: "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 launched with a sealed-bid auction to stop snipers and bots, offered staking rewards, but only hit 39% of its funding goal. McGregor refunded the cash after the flop — blame it on the crypto downturn and memecoin bear market at the time.

Memecoins were the hottest crypto play in 2024, but 2025 hit 'em hard. The hype died after celeb-backed launches crashed instantly or got exposed as rug pulls — including tokens tied to US President Donald Trump and Argentina's President Javier Milei.

Memecoins tanked to a $39.4B market cap on Friday — the lowest of 2025 — losing up to $5B in a single day, per CoinMarketCap. The sector's been bleeding since December 2024.