McGregor vs Khabib NFT Drama: ZachXBT Exposes Hypocrisy Over Failed Meme Coin

The long-standing rivalry between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov has resurfaced in an surprising enviornment, igniting an issue that blends private historical past, digital collectibles, and renewed criticism over movie star involvement in crypto tasks.

What started as a jab from McGregor over Khabib’s latest NFT drop has developed right into a wider debate involving blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who publicly accused the Irish fighter of hypocrisy over his personal failed meme coin launch.

McGregor Criticizes Khabib’s Papakha NFTs, On-Chain Investigator Fires Back

The dispute intensified on November 26 after McGregor accused Nurmagomedov of orchestrating a “multi-million greenback rip-off” tied to a Telegram-based NFT assortment often called the “Papakha” drop.

The venture featured 29,000 digital variations of the normal Dagestani hat Khabib famously wore throughout his UFC walkouts, marketed as a cultural tribute to his late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.

The NFTs reportedly offered out in simply 25 hours. Controversy adopted when promotional posts disappeared from Khabib’s Instagram and X pages, prompting McGregor to say that followers had been misled.

Nurmagomedov responded, insisting that the gathering was respectable and designed as an “unique digital present” symbolizing Dagestani traditions.

You absolute liar

You will at all times attempt to darken my identify, after you bought destroyed that evening, however you’ll by no means obtain that!

Yes, good guys don’t try this.

They don’t create unique digital items with actual time worth, you could share together with your family and friends.

Gifts…

— khabib nurmagomedov (@StaffKhabib) November 26, 2025

He defended the distribution by Telegram and dismissed any claims of wrongdoing. The alternate revived tensions between the 2 athletes, however the debate escalated additional when on-chain investigator ZachXBT entered the dialogue.

Hours after McGregor’s submit, on-chain investigator ZachXBT reignited the controversy by turning McGregor’s personal criticisms towards him.

There is simply no manner good man McGregor used his popularity, in addition to Irish tradition, to rip-off his followers and fireplace promote a bunch of digital tokens’s on-line after which delete all the posts after they had been offered, leaving his followers robbed of their cash?

There is simply no manner good man… pic.twitter.com/CuUzvPGiKS

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 26, 2025

ZachXBT reminded the general public of McGregor’s April 2025 meme coin, $REAL, which was provided in a sealed-bid public sale with staking rewards for individuals.

Despite the bold launch, the venture raised solely 39% of its focused aim, prompting full refunds to buyers.

ZachXBT’s submit questioned whether or not it was credible to label Khabib a scammer whereas McGregor himself had beforehand didn’t ship on a digital token venture, successfully drawing parallels between the 2 fighters’ crypto endeavors.

Celebrity Crypto Failures Spotlighted Amid Meme Coin Market Slide

Both McGregor and Nurmagomedov have histories of controversial crypto ventures. Nurmagomedov faced criticism in 2023 for selling a probably fraudulent NFT in partnership with GoMining.

He additionally confronted combined reactions for selling the Sharia-compliant finance platform Wahed.

Meanwhile, McGregor has had his personal setbacks, together with the 2022 McGregor Realm NFT venture and the failed $REAL meme coin. These prior incidents have amplified the present dispute, as every fighter references the opposite’s previous failures to strengthen their narrative.

ZachXBT’s participation within the McGregor–Khabib spat coincides with a broader surge in enforcement towards undisclosed promotions.

Notably, in September, the investigator published paperwork revealing that greater than 150 crypto influencers didn’t label paid ads in token campaigns, elevating considerations about market integrity.

Meme cash had been among the many hottest narratives and top-performing sectors in crypto in 2024. However, their speedy surge got here to an abrupt halt in 2025 amid broader turbulence across the meme and NFT markets.

After peaking at $116.7 billion in early January, the sector collapsed to $39.4 billion in November, marking a 66% decline as a number of political and celebrity-backed launches quickly misplaced worth or had been accused of misconduct.

The downturn was compounded by a pointy contraction in speculative urge for food throughout NFTs and low-liquidity tokens.

While the meme coin market has proven transient indicators of stabilization by not too long ago rising to $46.64 billion with a 1.3% day by day achieve and a 24-hour buying and selling quantity of $5.05 billion, the sector stays far beneath its earlier highs.

The ongoing dispute between McGregor and Nurmagomedov exhibits the renewed scrutiny dealing with movie star crypto promotions, particularly at a time when failures, stalled presales, and alleged misrepresentations proceed to draw consideration.

Recent controversies have included the $433 million BlockDAG presale, which ZachXBT linked to an undisclosed founder, and the WEB3 token sale, which he tied to people related to previous NFT rug pulls.

The submit McGregor vs Khabib NFT Drama: ZachXBT Exposes Hypocrisy Over Failed Meme Coin appeared first on Cryptonews.