Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Harmony plans to sunset its Layer 1 blockchain, citing growing security threats from state-backed hackers and AI agents.
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The project has proposed migrating ONE to Ethereum through an automatic token airdrop based on balances recorded at the final Harmony block.
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Users must exit liquidity pools, multisig wallets, and other smart contracts before Sept. 10 because these applications cannot be migrated.
Harmony Plans to Sunset Layer 1 Blockchain
Harmony announced Sunday that it plans to retire its Layer 1 blockchain and migrate its native ONE token to Ethereum, citing persistent security threats.
“The threats posed by state actors and AI agents are too great,” Harmony said in an announcement on X. “Since our mainnet launch in 2019, our community has been resilient through attacks and changes—but it is time to fully sunset the Harmony network.”
— Harmony (@harmonyprotocol) September 6, 2026
The project has not provided a specific date for producing the blockchain’s final block. However, it said validators can begin ceasing node operations on Sept. 10.
Harmony’s proposed closure comes less than a month after an attacker exploited the network and minted trillions of unauthorized ONE tokens.
Harmony plans to transition eligible validators into “governor” roles within a new initiative built around what it calls a “remix economy” for AI-generated videos.
Under the proposed model, a small group of AI video creators would publish prompts and creative assets openly. Fans could then fork or remix the original material, while AI agents would turn each variation into additional video clips.
“We will bootstrap this economy with creators and operators who make AI videos,” Harmony said. “Advertising could generate tens of millions of dollars from a million users.”
The team has set aside $1.37 million to compensate qualifying validators who shut down their nodes, sign an agreement, retain their stakes, and become governors in the new initiative.
Harmony Proposes Automatic ONE Migration to Ethereum
Harmony has proposed issuing a new version of ONE on Ethereum and migrating centralized exchange listings. The process is intended to occur automatically for holders, delegators and validators.
At the blockchain’s final block, Harmony plans to record ONE balances held in personal wallets, staking delegations, validator reward accounts, smart contracts and centralized exchanges.
Equivalent tokens would then be airdropped to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum.
“Delegated stakes and unclaimed rewards will be airdropped to individual governor vaults,” Harmony said.
The project also intends to coordinate with centralized exchanges to migrate ONE listings to the Ethereum-based token.
Harmony said the token’s total supply and emission rate would remain unchanged. Newly issued tokens would be allocated to the project’s planned remix economy initiative.
Although regular wallet balances can be captured in the final snapshot, Harmony warned that it cannot migrate multisignature safes, liquidity pools, or decentralized applications.
Users should therefore withdraw their assets and exit all Harmony-based smart contracts before Sept. 10, 2026.
Failure to remove assets from these applications before the deadline could make them inaccessible once validators shut down and the network stops processing transactions.
ONE fell 3.86% over the preceding 24 hours following the announcement, trading at approximately $0.00073.
August Exploit Created Trillions of Unauthorized Tokens
Harmony’s shutdown proposal follows a major network exploit in August. Initial reports estimated that the attacker had minted 4 billion unauthorized ONE tokens. A subsequent reconstruction by Harmony found that more than 3 trillion tokens had been created across six transactions.
The attacker exploited a vulnerability in Harmony’s cross-shard receipt-verification system. The flaw allowed valid receipts to be processed repeatedly, enabling new ONE tokens to be minted without an equivalent debit elsewhere on the network.
Harmony also identified a separate bug affecting the network’s pre-staking quorum checks.
The team responded by rolling the blockchain back to a point before the unauthorized tokens were created. At the time, Harmony identified a possible migration of ONE as one option for addressing the network’s future.
The August incident was not Harmony’s first major security breach. In June 2022, attackers exploited the project’s Horizon cross-chain bridge, stealing nearly $100 million in cryptocurrency, including ether and several stablecoins.
Security researchers linked the incident to compromised keys controlling the bridge’s multisignature wallet.
In January 2023, the FBI attributed the attack to Lazarus Group and APT38, two North Korean state-backed hacking organizations.
That history, combined with the more recent token-minting exploit, has now prompted Harmony to propose retiring its blockchain entirely and moving ONE to Ethereum.
