Key Takeaways
- Harmony has announced plans to discontinue its Layer 1 blockchain operations, nearly seven years after its mainnet debut in 2019
- The native ONE token will transition to Ethereum through an automatic airdrop process requiring no user intervention
- Network validators can cease operations starting September 10 and receive compensation from a $1.37 million fund
- This decision follows a recent security breach where an unauthorized actor minted more than 3 trillion ONE tokens
- The company intends to shift focus toward building an AI-driven video “remix economy” platform
Harmony, an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain network, has announced its intention to cease operations and transition its native ONE token to the Ethereum ecosystem. The Sunday announcement represents a dramatic transformation for the project, which first launched its mainnet in 2019.
According to the company, persistent security vulnerabilities drove the decision. “The threats posed by state actors and AI agents are too great,” Harmony stated in a social media post on X.
Token Migration Process Explained
The migration strategy involves capturing a final blockchain snapshot at the network’s concluding block. Following this, new ERC-20 compliant ONE tokens will be distributed to corresponding wallet addresses on Ethereum’s network.
The snapshot process will encompass standard wallets, staking delegations, validator compensation, smart contracts, and assets held on centralized exchanges. Token holders won’t be required to perform any manual steps to receive their new tokens.
That said, certain infrastructure elements including multisig safes, liquidity pools, and decentralized applications cannot be transferred. Harmony has strongly advised users to withdraw from smart contracts before the September 10, 2026 deadline.
The overall token supply and emission schedule will remain unchanged. At the time of the announcement, ONE was trading at $0.00073, representing a 3.86% decline over the preceding 24 hours.
Security Breach Catalyzes Strategic Shift
This proposal emerged less than a month following a significant security incident. A malicious actor exploited a vulnerability in Harmony’s cross-shard receipt verification mechanism, which permitted valid receipts to be executed multiple times.
Leveraging this weakness, the perpetrator generated over 3 trillion unauthorized ONE tokens through six separate transactions. In response, Harmony implemented a network rollback to an August 11 checkpoint, which eliminated more than 109,000 standard transactions and 315 staking-related transactions.
This wasn’t Harmony’s inaugural security compromise. In June 2022, malicious actors extracted approximately $100 million from its Horizon cross-chain bridge infrastructure. Federal investigators subsequently linked that incident to North Korean cybercriminal organizations Lazarus Group and APT38.
Following the August security breach, Harmony indicated that token migration was among several strategies under evaluation. Sunday’s announcement appears to solidify that approach.
Validator Options and Compensation
Network validators have been presented with three pathways: discontinue node operations, transition to governance roles, or participate in Harmony’s emerging AI video venture.
A compensation fund totaling $1.37 million has been allocated for validators who terminate their nodes by September 10, preserve their staked assets, and commit to serving in governance capacities.
The initiative is characterized as non-binding. According to Harmony’s governance framework, approval requires participation from 51% of total stake weight and 66.7% affirmative votes following a 21-day deliberation period.
Harmony’s future strategy centers on an AI-powered video “remix economy,” where content creators share open prompts and artificial intelligence agents produce video content from user-generated variations. The team projects that advertising revenue could reach tens of millions of dollars with a user base of one million.
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