NORMIE Token Plummets 99.8% After Lending Flash Attack

Recently, the cryptocurrency community witnessed a devastating attack on the NORMIE meme token, which saw its price plummet 99.8% in a matter of minutes. An unidentified hacker exploited a vulnerability in the token’s tax mechanism to inflate the supply of NORMIE, resulting in its market value plummeting from $40 million to less than $400,000. At the time of publication, the price of NORMIE was quoted at US$0.000473 with a drop of 98% in the last 24 hours.

The attack, described as a “flash loan attack,” took advantage of the instant transaction nature of blockchain. The hacker managed to borrow large amounts of cryptocurrency without any collateral, manipulated the supply of NORMIE and repaid the loan in a single transaction.

After the attack, the NORMIE team quickly sprang into action. They announced that the hacker had reached out and agreed to return 90% of the affected funds. In an official statement, the team stated: “Explorer, we accept your offer to return 90% of the explored $ETH. You can keep 10%, without reprisals.” Additionally, the team encouraged affected token holders to register for a snapshot that will be used in a relaunch of the project.

Reminder, $NORMAL Holder Refunds are now live 📢

Due to the recent exploit, all holders are being issued a compensatory refund.

Check eligibility and claim your refund on our site below.

👉 https://t.co/wALZC6kqBX pic.twitter.com/QjuDl9T4E1

— Normie (@crown_premium_P) May 26, 2024

Blockchain analyst Golden Degen explained how the attack was possible. According to him, the attack began with the hacker’s wallet being financed by a hidden network, which allowed the NORMIE contract to be manipulated due to a flaw in the token exchange function. “The contract simply verifies that your token balance is the same as the team’s wallet, and if so, you can mint tokens. The exploiter bought/sold NORMIE tokens to have the same amount of tokens as the team’s wallet and began minting tokens and selling them on the open market,” Degen detailed.

How $NORMAL got exploited and went from $40m MC to $100k MC within 1 minute, who else is effected, and what the @NormieBase team can do to fix this situation:

1. The exploiter’s wallet was funded by secret network

2. The Normie contact had a premarket user map that bypasses… pic.twitter.com/SuTqTlJf4W

— Golden Degen (@0xGoldenDegen) May 26, 2024

Token holders were invited to register for clearing by the end of May, as announced by the NORMIE team prior to the suspension of their X network account.

This event draws attention to the importance of secure contracts and constant vigilance in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which continues to be a target for skilled and opportunistic hackers.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or anyone mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment or other advice. Investing or trading cryptocurrencies carries a risk of financial loss.