Memecoin project Normie, based on Coinbase’s native blockchain Base, claims that it has fired its intern after posting an offensive video to its official X account.
“After careful consideration and internal reflection, we have decided to remove our last video,” Normie developers wrote. “The intern that posted it has been fired. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by the content. We are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again."
The promotional video, which was released on June 10 to the distaste of the crypto community, appears to show a blue-skinned cartoon chef dancing to the tune of cooking with heavily exaggerated full lips.
“How is this the intern’s fault? did he make and post the whole video himself? did your team not approve it?" One user commented. “Fire whoever should’ve been helping the intern and allowed that to happen.”
Developers explained that the intended message of the video was that “there is always a way out, even when everything is coming at you, and that positive change begins with oneself.”
"It was never our intention to trivialize a sensitive topic," they said.
Last month, Normie also suffered a smart contract exploit, in which hackers breached 225 Ether (ETH) ($881,686) of users’ funds, leading to a $41.7 million plunge in the token’s market cap in less than three hours.
Normie later reportedly accepted the hacker’s offer to get 90% of the stolen NORMIE tokens back—though the price has already fallen 96% since the exploit—on the condition that Normie uses the stolen funds and the $2.3 million in its development wallet to launch a new token to reimburse NORMIE holders.
On June 7, Normie developers claimed that 192 Ether stolen during the incident had been recovered and that its token launch at its new address was complete.
Since April 1, 372,642 new tokens have been launched on the Ethereum network, with 88% launched on Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain Base.
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