Base chain meme coin Normie has issued an apology after it posted a video depicting suicide in an attempt pump its token.

The now deleted video (screenshot here; warning: disturbing content) showed the Normie character hanging itself, being buried in a cemetery, and then meeting a God-like figure. The deity tells Normie that they need to refund the community and relaunch to return to Earth. Then, the character jumps from their grave with news reports stating, “Death is not a problem.”

The controversy comes after the project was exploited in May, causing its token to plummet 99% in a matter of hours. Since then, Normie has been working to regain trust by refunding those affected and relaunching a token with bolstered security.

With the relaunch underway, the Twitter account has been posting promotional videos. Previous posts were generally met with positivity as the project attempted to recover from its exploit. But this time, it apparently went too far.

Crypto Twitter went into uproar, with users suggesting that "Normie encourages suicide" or that traders should "send this atrocity to zero once and for all" due to "disgusting content.” Well-known crypto influencer Ansem simply replied, “Jesus Christ.” 

Ultimately, the project deleted the tweet with the video.

“We have decided to remove our last video,” a Twitter post explained. “It was never our intention to trivialize a sensitive topic.”

Instead, the post claims that the video aimed to explain that there is always a way out despite the brutal depiction of suicide. “The intern that posted it has been fired,” the post noted, though the concept of an intern being fired after a poorly received tweet has become something of a meme in the crypto space.

Decrypt reached out to the Normie team for additional comment and clarification on that point, but did not immediately receive a response.

That move received mixed responses from traders. In particular, some members of the community griped that an intern was purportedly fired for the post, as they believed others were responsible for what unfolded. Some speculated that the intern firing was just a joke, given the meme.

Like most meme coins, NORMIE trading has been highly volatile over the past 24 hours, with the price rising and falling—but it's now down 16% over the past 24 hours at a current price of about $0.033.

Edited by Andrew Hayward