Base's Meme Coin “Normie” Market Cap Plummets 99% After Exploit

Normie, a meme coin on Ethereum's Layer 2 network Base, suffered a severe exploit, causing its value to plummet by 99%.

An attacker exploited a vulnerability in Normie's contract tax mechanism, using a flash loan attack to increase the token supply drastically. This led to a 99% drop in value, with the market cap falling from $41 million to around $1.3 million.

Normie emerged during the meme coin frenzy that swept through the blockchain network following the Dencun Upgrade, significantly reducing fees for Ethereum layer-2 networks. The project initially enjoyed success, achieving a market capitalization of over $100 million before the incident.

Impact on Traders

One trader's $1.16 million investment in NORMIE, a significant portion of their portfolio, is now valued at less than $150. This devastating loss is not an isolated incident, as many other token holders have also reported similar significant losses on the project’s official Telegram channel.

In addition, the crypto exchange LBank reported a significant influx of Normie token deposits, which may be linked to the exploit.

"We have observed an unusually high number of NORMIE token deposits, potentially related to the exploit. We urge the project team to provide details regarding the involved addresses and discuss potential solutions," LBank stated.

The Attacker Offered to Return the Stolen Assets

Interestingly, the attacker has proposed returning 90% of the stolen assets if the project launches a new token to compensate affected holders.

In response, the Normie team agreed to the proposal and assured us there would be no reprisals. The team also committed all the ETH in its development wallet to the recovery effort. On-chain data reveals that the Normie developer wallet currently contains about 736 ETH, valued at approximately $11.7 million.

"Exploiter, we accept your offer to return 90% of the exploited ETH. You may keep 10%, and there will be no reprisals. All ETH from the Normie dev wallet will be used to address this situation and support our relaunch," the Normie team announced.