An unfortunate investor lost over $1 million in crypto assets following an attack on the memecoin project Normie. The memecoin investor spent over $1.16 million to purchase 11.23 million Normie (NORMIE) memecoins, but according to Lookonchain’s May 26 post, the initial investment plummeted by over 99% to just $150.
What Happened in the Normie Attack?
Normie is a memecoin project on the Base network that suffered a smart contract attack exceeding $41.7 million in market value within just three hours. Lookonchain was the first platform to highlight this attack in its May 26 post.
According to CoinGecko data, Normie’s value dropped by over 96% following the attack, hitting a market cap low of around $200,000 before a small recovery began.
Early on May 27, it was reported that the Normie team accepted the hacker’s offer to return 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens. This agreement depends on using the returned funds and the team’s development wallet of $2.3 million to launch a new token to reimburse NORMIE holders. The hacker demanded that the token launch occur before returning the stolen funds, as stated in the attacker’s blockchain message seen by Lookonchain:
“The developer wallet earned much more than I did during this attack, and there is no other way to ensure these funds are used properly.”
According to a May 26 post by blockchain data analysis firm Quick Intel, the smart contract attack first detected in March affected over 72,000 Normie holders.
Memecoin Hype Continues
Despite the unfortunate event, memecoin investors continue to buy animal-themed cryptocurrencies. According to CoinMarketCap data, frog-themed memecoin Pepe reached an all-time high of $0.00001718 on May 27, following a rise of over 75% last week.
Memecoin projects are among the most volatile crypto assets because they lack intrinsic utility. Despite the inherent risks, some investors navigate this high-risk market segment successfully, earning millions. Two weeks ago, a savvy Pepe investor turned $3,000 into $46 million through memecoin trading. The return of the GameStop legend supported Pepe’s price, and the investor achieved a return 15,718 times their initial investment.
