Celebrity token hype is cooling down! Former UFC champion Conor McGregor's meme coin REAL only raised 39% in its presale.

The REAL Crypto Assets project endorsed by former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion Conor McGregor raised only about $390,000 during its public pre-sale, failing to reach the development team's set threshold of $1,000,000, and was ultimately declared a failure. The developer Real World Gaming (RWG) has pledged to refund all participants' funds in full.

REAL presale failure: only raised less than half of the funds

As the first "double champion" in UFC history to hold both the featherweight and lightweight titles, mixed martial artist (MMA) Conor McGregor boasts 46 million followers on social media platform Instagram and 10.7 million followers on X.

He also owns the whiskey brand "Proper No. Twelve" and the fitness chain brand "McGregor FAST", making him a quite business-savvy athlete.

Recently, he has also stepped into the Crypto Assets field, with the Real (REAL) project he personally endorsed holding a pre-sale from April 5 to 6, using a closed bidding format. However, it ultimately attracted only 668 participants, with a total fundraising amount of 392,315 USDC, which is far below the expected minimum threshold of 1 million US dollars, and only reaches 11% of the final goal of 3.6 million US dollars.

已經過了16小時，Conor mcgregor的代幣僅籌集了$200k

The more we discourage such grifty behavior the lesser it appears.

Even retail is getting sick of these memes pic.twitter.com/S9plVb5eMZ

— Defi_Mochi (@defi_mochi) April 6, 2025

The development team admitted in a post on platform X: "We must face reality, we did not meet the target this time, and all funds will be fully refunded."

Even if the fundraising fails, RWG still stated in the post that "this is not the end," indicating that the team may readjust the plan and try again or launch a new project.

McGregor: Real is not a typical celebrity coin.

McGregor previously emphasized that REAL is not like the celebrity tokens that were casually launched in the past, which ultimately only led to losses for investors:

This is not just another nominal token, but a true game changer that can transform the Crypto Assets ecosystem and bring real change to the world.

As an athlete, entrepreneur, and Irish politician, McGregor hopes to set a standard of integrity in the Crypto Assets industry through REAL, but it is clear that the market is not buying it.

(Token 2049｜Celebrity endorsement of Crypto Assets drives people crazy, and marketing is one of the methods of fraud)

The celebrity coin craze has cooled down, and the community's response is tepid.

Facing significant resistance to the REAL launch, DeFi researcher Mochi called out: "Even retail investors are starting to get tired of and fed up with these memes, I like to see this situation."

The more people publicly criticize this money-making behavior, the harder it is for it to occur.

This statement has received considerable feedback in the community and highlights that recent investors' patience with celebrity tokens has gradually worn thin.

Poor timing for the presale: the market atmosphere worsens.

The unfavorable situation of REAL coins is partly related to the macroeconomic environment and the sluggish Crypto Assets market. This includes the significant drop in Bitcoin and the evaporating of 6.6 trillion USD in market value of the US stock market within two days due to Trump's new round of tariff plans, creating the largest two-day decline in history.

Moreover, since the launch of the TRUMP coin on January 18, 2025, the overall crypto meme coin market has gradually cooled down. This has been exacerbated by the involvement of Argentine President Milei in the LIBRA token scandal, making matters worse for the market.

(Mouse Warehouse, insider trading, presidential coin printing machine? A glimpse into the dark secrets after the collapse of the LIBRA meme coin )

According to CoinGecko data, the total market capitalization of meme coins has dropped from a peak of $100 billion to $44 billion, declining by 13% in just the past 24 hours.

This article talks about the cooling down of celebrity tokens! Former UFC champion Conor McGregor's meme coin REAL raised only 39% in its pre-sale, first appearing in Chain News ABMedia.