TLDR
- Harmony has proposed sunsetting its Layer 1 blockchain, seven years after launching its mainnet in 2019
- The ONE token will migrate to Ethereum via airdrop, with no action needed from holders
- Validators can stop nodes from Sept. 10 and share a $1.37 million compensation pool
- The move follows an August exploit where an attacker minted over 3 trillion unauthorized ONE tokens
- Harmony plans to pivot to an AI video “remix economy” as its next business direction
Harmony, the Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, has proposed shutting down its network and migrating its native ONE token to Ethereum. The announcement came on Sunday and marks a major shift for the project, which launched its mainnet in 2019.
— Harmony (@harmonyprotocol) September 6, 2026
The platform cited ongoing security threats as the main reason for the decision. “The threats posed by state actors and AI agents are too great,” Harmony said in a post on X.
What Happens to ONE Token
Harmony plans to take a final snapshot of the network at its last block. New ERC-20 ONE tokens will then be airdropped to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum.
The snapshot will cover wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchange balances. Holders will not need to take any action to receive the new tokens.
However, multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications cannot be migrated. Harmony has urged all users to exit smart contracts before September 10, 2026.
The total token supply and emission rate will stay the same. ONE was trading at $0.00073, down 3.86% in the 24 hours following the announcement.
The Exploit That Triggered the Pivot
The proposal comes less than four weeks after a major security exploit. An attacker found a flaw in Harmony’s cross-shard receipt verification system, which allowed valid receipts to be processed more than once.
LATEST: 🚨 Harmony plans to roll back its blockchain to Aug. 11, reversing over 109,000 transactions and 315 staking transactions, days after an exploit minted ~4 billion ONE tokens. pic.twitter.com/I0wEcGVrTX
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) August 18, 2026
Using this bug, the attacker minted more than 3 trillion ONE tokens across six transactions. Harmony rolled back its network to an August 11 checkpoint, wiping over 109,000 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions.
This was not Harmony’s first major hack. In June 2022, attackers stole nearly $100 million from its Horizon cross-chain bridge. The FBI later attributed that attack to North Korean hacker groups Lazarus Group and APT38.
After the August exploit, Harmony said token migration was one option it was considering. The Sunday proposal appears to confirm that direction.
Validator Transition
Validators have been offered three choices: stop their nodes, continue as governors, or join Harmony’s new AI video initiative.
A pool of $1.37 million has been set aside to compensate validators who shut down their nodes by September 10, maintain their stakes, and agree to serve as governors.
The proposal is described as non-binding. Under Harmony’s governance rules, passage requires 51% of total stake weight to participate and 66.7% support after a 21-day process.
Harmony’s new direction involves an AI video “remix economy,” where creators publish open prompts and AI agents generate clips from user forks. The team said advertising could generate tens of millions of dollars from a million users.
