The hacker offered to return 90% of stolen NORMIE tokens, with 10% as a bug bounty and no consequences.
The value of the Normie (NORMIE) token sunk by 99% within three hours after it was victim to a smart contract exploit, which temporarily dropped its market cap from $42 million to $200,000.
Following the exploit, the developers of the Base meme coin are in discussions with the individual responsible for the incident to reclaim 90% of the stolen funds.
The Hacker’s Offer
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain was the first to detect the exploit and the hacker’s offer.
In an on-chain message to Normie’s deployer address on May 26, the hacker offered to return 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens, stipulating that the remaining 10% be kept as a bug bounty with no reprisals.
The hacker also demanded that the stolen funds, along with the 600 ETH worth approximately $3,900 in the team’s dev wallet, be used to launch a new token to reimburse NORMIE holders.
“We will have to re-launch, yes,” stated Normie’s team via a newly established X account following the suspension of their main one. “That will come after we get our main Twitter account back and after we get the funds from the exploiter,” Normie added. However, the temporary account was also suspended shortly after that.
Meanwhile, the hacker wouldn’t compromise on their strict terms, insisting that a token relaunch must precede the return of funds. “The dev wallet made significantly more than I did during this exploit, and I have no other way to ensure that those funds are used appropriately,” they stated in another on-chain message.
The Exploit’s Aftermath
Quick Intel, a blockchain scam detection tool, reported that the exploit impacted 72,000 NORMIE holders.
Lookonchain also revealed that an anonymous trader who had invested $1.16 million to acquire 11.23 million NORMIE tokens during the cryptocurrency’s peak is now facing a substantial loss. Their initial investment of $1.16M, which they held until now without selling, is now worth less than $150.
According to CoinGecko data, NORMIE’s price plummeted by over 92% within the first hour of the attack, falling further by 99.5% after two and a half hours. Despite a brief price surge, the cryptocurrency continued its descent, hitting rock bottom at $0.00022, representing a 98.2% fall from its all-time high.
However, Normie has since shown signs of recovery. At writing time, its market cap is $1,043,837, and its price is $0.001053, marking a 57% increase in the last 24 hours.
NORMIE launched amidst the frenzy of meme coin mania on Base in March 2024 and reached a peak market cap of $130 million on April 2, according to CoinGecko data.