Conor McGregor has a knack for making money. From becoming the highest paid mixed martial artist in history, founding an alcohol empire, to becoming a fight promoter, the Irishman just has a head for business. However, surprisingly, his latest business venture—a memecoin cryptocurrency called $REAL, which was launched earlier this month, has failed.

The coin was put on pre-sale by the developers with a target to raise $3.6 million. However, on April 6, the developers of the coin informed the public that the $REAL coin had raised only around $342k, and failed to meet even the minimum raise of $1 million, let alone the target raise of $3.2 million. They promised to refund the buyers whatever money they had put into the crypto coin.

Of course, the world of crypto is pretty shady with sundry new rug pulls and pump and dumps a regular feature of the industry. However, the Irishman did not go that route. It seems ‘The Notorious’ and the devs have come through on their promise and returned all the money to all the investors of the $REAL coin. At least that is what Conor McGregor has claimed.

“This is $REAL!” the Dubliner wrote in a quote tweet where the devs claimed all the money invested in the coin had been returned to the investors.

Of course, this is not a good sign for the Irishman. After all, the most popular mixed martial artist in history and a veritable global superstar failing to hit the target for his crypto coin should worry the former UFC double champ. After all, many are seeing it as a bellwether for McGregor’s decreasing popularity. Which should worry ‘The Notorious’, who plans on running for the President of his native Republic of Ireland this year. But why is the Irishman so unpopular at the moment?

Conor McGregor’s spectacular fall from grace

Conor McGregor has lost a lot of respect, not just among fight fans, but just in general over the past few years. Gone is the mythical young and hungry ‘Mystic Mac’, who just had a certain je ne sais quoi and such a magnetic appeal that you couldn’t take your eyes off him. Not to mention he was an absolute dynamite in the Octagon, bringing unprecedented amounts of excitement and eyeballs to the sport when he fought.

Most MMA fans today did not see the heyday of Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson, but Conor McGregor, in his come-up during the mid-2010s did come closest any mixed martial artists has to these legends’ aura and star-power. But that version of McGregor is gone, dead, and buried, replaced by a man who bears little resemblance to the young and hungry Irishman everyone fell in love with. Today the Dubliner has generational wealth, and many feel that has killed his hunger and motivation.

‘The Notorious’ has lost three out of his last four fights, and hasn’t fought for the past four years. And since he is running for President this year, it is unlikely he will ever fight again. Moreover, ‘Mystic Mac’ losing a civil suit to Nikita Hand has really made McGregor’s mud in polite society. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, as the old adage goes. And that is nowhere truer in the case of Conor McGregor. What do you think about the failure of Conor McGregor’s crypto coin?