The long-standing rivalry between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov has resurfaced in an surprising area, igniting an argument that blends private historical past, digital collectibles, and renewed criticism over celeb involvement in crypto initiatives.
What started as a jab from McGregor over Khabib’s current 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 Again
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 referred to as the “Papakha” drop.
The challenge 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 bought 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 professional and designed as an “unique digital reward” symbolizing Dagestani traditions.
You absolute liar
You’ll at all times attempt to darken my title, after you bought destroyed that night time, however you’ll by no means obtain that!
Sure, good guys don’t try this.
They don’t create unique digital presents with actual time worth, that you may share together with your family and friends.
Presents…— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) November 26, 2025
He defended the distribution via Telegram and dismissed any claims of wrongdoing. The change 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 in opposition to him.
There’s simply no approach good man McGregor used his repute, in addition to Irish tradition, to rip-off his followers and hearth promote a bunch of digital tokens’s on-line after which delete the entire posts after they had been bought, leaving his followers robbed of their cash?
There’s simply no approach 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 supplied in a sealed-bid public sale with staking rewards for contributors.
Regardless of the bold launch, the challenge raised solely 39% of its focused purpose, 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 did not ship on a digital token challenge, successfully drawing parallels between the 2 fighters’ crypto endeavors.
Celeb Crypto Failures Spotlighted Amid Meme Coin Market Slide
Each McGregor and Nurmagomedov have histories of controversial crypto ventures. Nurmagomedov confronted criticism in 2023 for selling a doubtlessly fraudulent NFT in partnership with GoMining.
He additionally confronted blended reactions for selling the Sharia-compliant finance platform Wahed.
In the meantime, McGregor has had his personal setbacks, together with the 2022 McGregor Realm NFT challenge 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 in opposition to undisclosed promotions.
Notably, in September, the investigator revealed paperwork revealing that greater than 150 crypto influencers did not label paid commercials in token campaigns, elevating issues about market integrity.
Meme cash had been among the many hottest narratives and top-performing sectors in crypto in 2024. Nonetheless, their speedy surge got here to an abrupt halt in 2025 amid broader turbulence throughout 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.
Whereas the meme coin market has proven transient indicators of stabilization by not too long ago rising to $46.64 billion with a 1.3% each day achieve and a 24-hour buying and selling quantity of $5.05 billion, the sector stays far beneath its earlier highs.
The continuing dispute between McGregor and Nurmagomedov exhibits the renewed scrutiny going through celeb crypto promotions, particularly at a time when failures, stalled presales, and alleged misrepresentations proceed to draw consideration.
Latest 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.
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