Harmony Abandons Layer-1 Blockchain Amid Escalating Threats

Harmony, a proof-of-stake network that launched its mainnet in 2019, is planning to shut down its Layer-1 blockchain and reissue its native ONE token as an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum. The team cited escalating threats from state-level attackers and AI agents as the reason for this drastic pivot.

The decision comes after a recent exploit allowed an attacker to forge trillions of ONE tokens by exploiting a cross-shard receipt verification flaw. The breach and subsequent chain rollback erased over 109,000 legitimate transactions, pushing the project to abandon its independent network.

Under the proposal, Harmony would take a snapshot of all ONE balances at the final block, then airdrop new ERC-20 tokens to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum. The token supply and emission schedule remain unchanged, but multisig safes, liquidity pools, and on-chain applications cannot be migrated.

The team has set aside $1.37 million for validator compensation over four quarters. However, holders of ONE on centralized exchanges face uncertainty as no exchange is obligated to credit an Ethereum-based airdrop.