Conor McGregor’s REAL Token Launch Flops: Bidders Receive Full Refunds

In the wake of celebrities backing crypto assets, Conor McGregor, UFC’s former champion turned entrepreneur and politician, recently joined the team and promoted the REAL token launched by Real World Gaming (RWG) DAO.

However, the token lost ground in the market before launching, and the issuer promised to fully refund the early investors.

The Conor McGregor-backed token couldn’t meet the $1 million minimum target set by the developers. They only managed to raise $392,315 in USDC during the presale.

Immediately after the disappointing outcome, the RWG team vented their disappointment and vehemently promised to refund all the contributors.

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

— Real World Gaming (@getrealtoken) April 6, 2025

They added that the unsatisfied result doesn’t signal an end to their operation.

Six hours later, the company made a post which read that all bids had been returned to wallets.

All bids have now been returned to wallets.

We’re gonna go get some sleep.

Stay real.

— Real World Gaming (@getrealtoken) April 7, 2025

Conor McGregor’s Token Collapses Amid Crypto Market Slump

At the announcement of the token by Conor McGregor on the 5th of April 2025, on his X account, he tagged the move as a change to crypto games. Some of the commentators, though, tagged the step as a new pump-and-dump scam.

I changed the FIGHT game.
I changed the WHISKEY game.
I changed the STOUT game.

Now it’s time to change the CRYPTO game.

This is just the beginning.

This is $REAL @getrealtoken https://t.co/tdUyvqyZHZ#GetReal pic.twitter.com/imoAYwY8D1

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 5, 2025

Despite that, some commentators believed that the token came at the wrong time, the fall off of the crypto market.

In fact, more than $1 billion in liquidation has been recorded in the last 24 hours. The token failure was due to the market slump triggered by the post-Trump tariff reactions.

President Donald Trump placed a minimum of 10% tariff on all the products coming to the United States of America, whilst some countries face more than that percentage.

“While celebrity-backed token launches have been common in recent months, McGregor’s project was unusual for its focus on an actual use case—an in-game utility token—rather than a meme coin.”

Prashant Kha said.

Earlier, a report mentioned that analysts dubbed today, April 7 2025, a ‘Black Monday’ due to the liquidation of many traders.

Celebrities Fuel Crypto Pump-and-Dump Scams with Misleading Endorsements

In recent trends in the crypto market, there is a huge record of scams that have been perpetrated through promotions by celebrities. Their endorsements often mislead fans into risky investments based on perceived credibility.

Pump-and-dump scams exploit celebrity influence to artificially inflate cryptocurrency or stock values before organizers sell off their holdings, leaving investors with little or nothing at the end.

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather have been linked to such schemes.

In 2022, Kardashian paid a $1.26 million SEC fine for promoting EthereumMax without disclosing payment.

Similarly, Mayweather promoted dubious crypto projects without transparency. Investors claimed they had accumulated losses for taking to the words of the celebrities.

The SEC emphasized that celebrity endorsements do not connote the legitimacy or safety of an investment. It added that Investors should research thoroughly before committing funds, regardless of celebrity backing, to avoid falling prey to hype-driven fraud.