Harmony Protocol Hacked: 4 Billion ONE Tokens Minted, Price Plunges 30%

Hackers exploited the Harmony Protocol, resulting in the unauthorized minting of approximately 4 billion ONE tokens, which is roughly 26% of the token's total supply. This massive increase in token supply triggered a significant price drop, with ONE falling more than 30%. According to on-chain data, the exploit involved the minting of tokens through empty blocks.

The newly created tokens were then moved from the addresses involved in the exploit. Around 2.8 billion ONE was transferred to cryptocurrency exchanges, where it could be sold. About 115 million ONE remained on-chain, according to available on-chain data.

Harmony has not yet disclosed the exact vulnerability that allowed the unauthorized minting to take place. The team also has not confirmed the final amount involved. Harmony is working with its team and cryptocurrency exchanges to stop and freeze funds linked to the exploit. The project identified four groups of wallet addresses and asked exchanges to block funds traced to those addresses.

Harmony said it is developing a patch to address the issue and is evaluating rollback options. A rollback could allow the network to reverse or restore affected transactions, although Harmony has not confirmed whether it will proceed with one.