Conor McGregor’s Crypto Token Flops in Presale, Signaling Shift from Celebrity-Backed Crypto

It’s not really crazy to think that any celebrity promoting a crypto coin may be going broke. It probably comes after years of spending millions on lavish lifestyles and expensive cars, or in Conor McGregor’s case, cocaine (rumors, of course).

And yes, you read the headline right. It looks like the former UFC champion Conor McGregor launched a new memecoin called REAL on April 5, and apparently, it was supposed to change the crypto game or something along those lines.

The token has (or had?) several purposes, including staking rewards and voting rights for token holders. Quite innovative, I guess. 

Related: Labor Outlines Regulatory Plan to Fuel Blockchain Innovation in Australia if Re-elected

Well, That’s Embarrassing

According to a project spokesperson, the token was launched through a sealed-bid auction to prevent snipers and bots from hijacking the launch. The project was developed in collaboration with the Real World Gaming DAO (RWG) and ran from April 5 to 6.

Originally known as Balthazar DAO, RWG had backing from major crypto firms, including Animoca Brands, KuCoin Labs, Tezos Foundation, and Algorand, among others. McGregor promoted the token to his large social media following, which includes nearly 10 million X followers and almost 47 million on Instagram.

However, during the 28-hour presale period, the ERC-20 token raised just US$392,315 (AU$641K), well below the minimum target of $1,008,000 (AU$1,649,376). According to the token’s website, RWG confirmed the shortfall on X:

“We need to be real. We didn’t hit our minimum raise. All bids will be refunded in full. This is not the end,” reads the website.

Comments on his X post and subsequent failure were quite hilarious and harsh. One user stated: 

Change the game but retarded enough to launch when memecoins are dead and retail is broke; shoulda taken less hits to the skull.

Dean Eigenmann

Eigenmann makes an interesting argument about the death of memecoins and retail struggles. In one year, the total market capitalisation of memecoins, currently at approximately US$40B (AU$65B), is down by over 40%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Related: Australian Trading Platform Swyftx Acquires New Zealand’s Largest Crypto Exchange 

Yet the latest trend in the memecoin community was the rise of Ghibli memes, which sprung after a recent update by GPT-4o by the end of March of this year.