Memecoin suffers scam and loses 99% of its value

Memecoins recorded the biggest gains last week, but a notable exception was the NORMIE memecoin, created on the Base network. While other cryptocurrencies in this sector rose more than 100%, NORMIE lost more than 99% of its value in a single day and practically ceased to exist financially.

Amid exploitation, the market value of this memecoin plummeted from US$182 million to US$110,000 in just a few minutes. The episode occurred after a hacker exploited a flash loan and managed to make NORMIE’s value collapse.

According to data provider Lookonchain, just one trader lost more than $1 million to this scam. The trader spent $1.16 million to acquire 11.23 million NORMIE at a rate of $0.1035 between March 25th and April 9th. It rose by 20% during this period.

However, after the exploration of NORMIE the amount purchased by the investor collapsed to a staggering $150. Blockchain data shows that the trader did not sell any NORMIE even after this collapse.

The team behind memecoin was quick to start negotiations with the hacker shortly after the attack. The attacker offered a proposal for the attacker to return 90% of the stolen funds, keeping 10% as a reward.

Supposedly, the team agreed to the hacker’s offer to return 90% of the stolen tokens. Although the token’s price has already dropped 96% since exploration, the agreement stipulates that the network will use the returned funds and $2.3 million from the team’s development portfolio to launch a new token to compensate NORMIE holders.

The attack occurred due to a smart contract vulnerability, which led to a US$41.7 million drop in NORMIE’s market value in three hours. The hacker’s main demand was that the team must relaunch the token before returning the funds.

The condition for returning 90% of the funds is that payment will take place in Ethereum (ETH). In total, the agreement stipulates that the hacker will return 600 ETH to the NORMIE developer’s wallet, under the condition that the network uses the amount to reimburse users.

NORMIE emerged earlier this year, in March 2024, but security platforms stated that the company’s contract was vulnerable to attacks. With this attack, around 72,000 memecoin holders suffered losses.