Conor McGregor's Crypto Crash: REAL Memecoin Fails to Launch

UFC Star's Ambitious Project Stumbles at the Starting Line

Hold onto your hats, folks! UFC legend Conor McGregor's big splash into the crypto world with his REAL memecoin has belly-flopped spectacularly. The much-hyped project managed to scrape together just 31% of its minimum presale goal before McGregor and his team had to pull the plug.

In a whirlwind 28-hour presale, the REAL memecoin only raked in a measly $392,000, falling a whopping 61% short of the $1 million they needed. Ouch! With the dream shattered, the project's been put on ice, and all those eager beavers who bid are getting their cash back, according to the project's website.

They tried to keep things on the up-and-up with a sealed-bid auction, hoping to bring some transparency and fairness to the table. Backed by the Real World Gaming DAO, the team had their sights set on a cool $3.6 million, planning to sell 60 million tokens (that's just 3% of the total supply) at a starting price of $0.06 each.

But with only 668 brave souls stepping up and less than half the minimum raise met, the whole thing just couldn't get off the ground. RWG had to break the news to investors that they'd be getting their money back after failing to hit that minimum raise.

We need to be real. We didn't hit our minimum raise. All bids will be refunded in full. This is not the end.

McGregor and his crew had been hyping this up as the real deal, a more honest alternative to all those other celebrity-backed tokens that have been slammed for being shady and scammy. McGregor promised that the REAL token would be different, with transparency, DAO voting rights, and even a shot at being used in the gaming world.

The token's structure showed they were in it for the long haul, with 31.5% going to the DAO treasury, 16.5% to the community, 13.5% to seed investors, and 10% to the team. The rest was split between staking, sales, airdrops, and liquidity. But people were already raising eyebrows about that 10% the team was keeping for themselves.

Despite all the effort, the launch couldn't have come at a worse time for the market. The memecoin scene is still licking its wounds from high-profile scams like the LIBRA memecoin fiasco back in February. The REAL token's flop just goes to show that, right now, even a big name like McGregor's isn't enough to get a project off the ground.

Investors are getting smarter and more cautious, even with heavy hitters like Animoca Brands and KuCoin Labs backing the project. As the hype dies down and people start focusing on the fundamentals, McGregor's team says the project will go forward in some way, but for now, the token's launch is on hold.