Harmony Sunsetting Layer-1 Blockchain, Migrating ONE Token to Ethereum
In brief
- Harmony proposes sunsetting its layer-1 blockchain and migrating ONE to Ethereum as ERC-20 tokens
- Exploit minted nearly 4 billion unauthorized ONE tokens, representing 26% of total supply
- Validators offered options to stop nodes, continue as governors, or join Harmony's AI-video initiative
- ONE balances will be airdropped to same Ethereum addresses; multisig safes and apps cannot migrate
Exploit Triggers Shutdown Plan
An attacker minted nearly 4 billion unauthorized ONE tokens, equivalent to about 26% of the supply. An outside account claimed about 2.8 billion forged tokens reached exchanges, though Harmony had not confirmed the figures at the time.
In response, Harmony announced plans to revert the blockchain to an August 11 checkpoint. On August 17, the network said it would discard 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions.
Investigators traced nearly all the forged tokens to wallets or service boundaries and were working with exchanges, bridges and law enforcement to contain the damage.
Migration to Ethereum
On Sunday, Harmony proposed taking a final network snapshot and issuing ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum. Under the plan, all ONE balances would be recorded at the network's final block and new ERC-20 tokens airdropped to the same addresses on Ethereum.
The proposal carries a significant caveat: multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be migrated. This limitation leaves certain token holders and dApp users without a direct path forward.
Validator Options and Governance
Validators would be offered three paths. They can stop their nodes, continue as governors, or join Harmony's new AI-video initiative.
Harmony described the proposal as non-binding and did not specify when the final block would be produced. Under Harmony's governance rules, passage requires 51% of total stake weight to participate and 66.7% support after a seven-day introduction and 14-day vote.
