In a stunning turn of events, the NORMIE meme token has fallen victim to a devastating attack in the cryptocurrency community. Within minutes, its price plummeted by 99.8%, leaving investors reeling. The attack, known as a “flash loan attack,” took advantage of the instantaneous nature of blockchain transactions. The hacker exploited a vulnerability in the token’s tax mechanism, inflating the supply of NORMIE and causing its market value to crash from $40 million to less than $400. As of now, the price of NORMIE stands at a measly US$0.000473, marking a 98% drop in the past 24 hours.
The hacker executed the attack by borrowing large sums of cryptocurrency without any collateral. They manipulated the supply of NORMIE and repaid the loan in a single transaction, leaving the token in ruins. In response, the NORMIE team swiftly took action. They revealed that the hacker had reached out and agreed to return 90% of the funds that were affected. In an official statement, the team declared, “Explorer, we accept your offer to return 90% of the explored $ETH. You can keep 10%, without reprisals.” Furthermore, the team urged impacted token holders to join a snapshot that would be utilized in a relaunch of the project.
To address how this attack occurred, blockchain analyst Golden Degen shed some light on the matter. According to Degen, the attack originated from the hacker’s wallet being funded by a concealed network. This allowed the NORMIE contract to be manipulated due to a flaw in the token exchange function. Degen explained, “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.”
In light of this incident, token holders were encouraged to register for clearing before the end of May, as announced by the NORMIE team prior to the suspension of their X network account. This event serves as a stark reminder of the importance of secure contracts and constant vigilance in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which remains a prime target for skilled and opportunistic hackers.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely for informational purposes and do not constitute financial, investment, or any other form of advice. Investing or trading cryptocurrencies carries the risk of financial loss.
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