Overview
Normie was a memecoin on the Base blockchain that gained significant traction in early 2024, reaching a market cap of approximately $42 million. The token was themed around the "normie" internet slang — referring to mainstream, non-crypto people — and positioned itself as a memecoin for people who were just entering the Base ecosystem. The irony of a token called "Normie" being primarily traded by crypto degens was part of the appeal.
On May 26, 2024, Normie suffered a catastrophic smart contract exploit. An attacker identified a vulnerability in the token's tax/fee mechanism that allowed them to manipulate the contract's internal accounting. The attacker was able to effectively mint new tokens and dump them on the market, causing the price to crash over 99% in minutes. Holders who were unable to sell before the crash saw their investments effectively vaporized.
The exploit was made possible by the token's unaudited smart contract. Like virtually all memecoins, Normie deployed with custom tokenomics (buy/sell taxes) that introduced complexity beyond a standard ERC-20 token. This complexity, combined with the absence of professional security auditing, created a vulnerability that a skilled attacker could identify and exploit.
Following the exploit, the Normie team announced plans for a relaunch with a new, presumably more secure contract. However, the damage to community trust was severe and likely irreparable. Most holders had lost everything, and the relaunch attracted only a fraction of the original community.
Community
Pre-exploit, Normie had a vibrant Base chain community. It was one of the top memecoins on Base during a period of intense speculative activity on the chain. The community was active on Twitter/X and Telegram, with the usual memecoin mix of meme production, price celebration, and onboarding new holders.
Post-exploit, the community fractured catastrophically. Holders who lost their investments expressed anger, grief, and demands for compensation. The team's relaunch attempt was met with skepticism — most victims had no appetite to trust the same team with another contract. The remaining community is a shadow of its pre-exploit self, consisting of a small number of holders who bought post-relaunch at deeply depressed prices.
The Normie saga generated significant attention across crypto media, making it one of the most high-profile memecoin exploits of 2024. This attention was universally negative — Normie became a cautionary tale cited in discussions about memecoin contract risk.
Liquidity
Post-exploit liquidity is negligible. Whatever DEX liquidity existed pre-exploit was drained during the attack. The relaunch token has minimal liquidity and near-zero volume. For practical purposes, Normie is an illiquid token that trades in negligible amounts.
Pre-exploit, Normie had reasonable DEX liquidity on Base — enough to support its $42M market cap with active trading. The exploit demonstrated how quickly memecoin liquidity can evaporate when trust collapses. Liquidity providers withdrew immediately, and the resulting vacuum amplified the crash.
On-Chain Metrics
Post-exploit on-chain metrics are minimal. Holder counts for the relaunched token are a fraction of the original. Most original holders still show in wallet data but hold worthless positions. Active trading addresses are in the low hundreds at best. The token is effectively inactive.
The exploit transaction itself is well-documented on-chain and serves as an educational resource for understanding smart contract vulnerabilities in memecoin tokenomics. The attacker's wallet movements were tracked by on-chain sleuths, contributing to the public understanding of the exploit mechanism.
Development
Zero. Pre-exploit, there was no meaningful development beyond the token contract and basic web presence. Post-exploit, the team deployed a new contract for the relaunch but has not demonstrated any additional development capability. The original contract's vulnerability was the direct result of inadequate development practices — no audit, no testing, and custom tokenomics that introduced exploitable complexity. Score: 0/10.
Risk Factors
- Exploited contract: The original token was exploited for a 99%+ crash — this actually happened, not a theoretical risk
- Irreparable trust damage: The community has been devastated and cannot realistically recover
- Unaudited code: The exploit was possible because the contract was not professionally audited
- Relaunch skepticism: The team's credibility is permanently damaged by the exploit
- Near-zero liquidity: Post-exploit trading is negligible
- Precedent risk: Even the relaunched token could contain undiscovered vulnerabilities
- Zero utility: No product, no development, no roadmap even before the exploit
Conclusion
Normie's story is straightforward and brutal: a memecoin rose to $42M market cap on Base, got exploited due to an unaudited smart contract vulnerability, and crashed 99%+ in minutes. Holders were wiped out. The team attempted a relaunch, but trust — once destroyed this comprehensively — does not recover.
The Normie exploit should be mandatory reading for anyone speculating on memecoins. Custom tokenomics (buy/sell taxes, reflection mechanisms, auto-liquidity) introduce smart contract complexity that standard ERC-20 tokens do not have. Without professional auditing, this complexity becomes a vector for exploitation. Most memecoins are not audited. Most memecoin traders do not check whether a contract has been audited. This is the result.
Normie as an investment is dead. Normie as a lesson is invaluable: in the memecoin casino, you are not just betting against the market — you are betting that an anonymous team's unaudited code does not contain an exploitable vulnerability. The house edge in this particular casino includes the possibility of total, instantaneous loss.