In a devastating turn of events, a trader lost more than $1 million worth of digital assets due to the Normie memecoin exploit. The trader had invested a whopping $1.16 million to purchase 11.23 million Normie (NORMIE) memecoins, only to see their initial investment plummet by over 99% to a mere $150, as reported in a post by Lookonchain on May 26.
Normie is a memecoin native to the Base platform, and it fell victim to a smart contract exploit that wiped out a staggering $41.7 million from its market capitalization in a span of just three hours. Lookonchain was the first to discover and report the exploit in their post on May 26. The value of Normie dropped by more than 96% following the exploit, with its market cap hitting rock bottom at around $200,000 before experiencing a slight recovery, according to data from CoinGecko.
On May 27, the Normie team apparently agreed to the hacker’s proposal of returning 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens. However, this agreement was contingent upon Normie using the returned funds, as well as $2.3 million from the team’s development wallet, to launch a new token that would compensate NORMIE holders. The hacker insisted that the token launch must occur before they would return the stolen funds, as stated in a blockchain message revealed by Lookonchain.
Following the hacker’s offer, there was a surge of fake Normie posts on X, falsely claiming to announce the relaunch of the new token. These deceptive posts aimed to lure unsuspecting individuals into clicking on fraudulent links. According to on-chain analytics firm Quick Intel’s post on May 26, more than 72,000 Normie holders were affected by the smart contract exploit, which was initially detected in March.
Despite this unfortunate incident, memecoin traders remain undeterred as they continue to invest in animal-themed cryptocurrencies. Pepe, a memecoin with a frog theme (PEPE), reached a new all-time high of $0.00001718 on May 27, having risen by over 75% in the past week, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Due to their lack of intrinsic utility, memecoins are known for their extreme volatility. Nevertheless, some traders are able to make millions by navigating this high-risk market segment successfully. Just two weeks ago, a savvy Pepe trader turned $3,000 into a staggering $46 million through memecoin trading. The resurgence of the GameStop saga bolstered the price of Pepe, resulting in a return on investment of over 15,718 times for the trader.
In conclusion, the Normie memecoin exploit proved to be a major setback for a trader who lost over $1 million worth of digital assets. Despite this setback, memecoin traders remain resilient as they continue to invest in animal-themed cryptocurrencies, with Pepe reaching new all-time highs.