Harmony announced it will shut down its blockchain and migrate its native token, ONE, to Ethereum as a new ERC-20 asset. The team cited threats from state actors and artificial intelligence agents as reasons for the decision. Validators can begin powering down their nodes starting September 10.
The network has faced multiple security incidents in recent years. In August, an exploit minted approximately 4 billion ONE tokens, roughly 26% of total supply, causing the token to decline to a record low of $0.0005735. Harmony responded by rolling back the chain. Previously, a 2022 breach of its Horizon Bridge resulted in the loss of close to $99.6 million.
The shutdown follows a similar pattern seen with BounceBit, which retired its Layer 1 blockchain in August after a security incident involving 286.5 million BB tokens, subsequently reissuing the token on BNB Chain.
Token Migration Details
ONE holders will not need to take action to claim tokens. Harmony will snapshot balances at the final block and airdrop equivalent new tokens to the same addresses on Ethereum. However, assets held in multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications will not transfer automatically. Users were urged to exit smart contracts before September 10.
Total token supply and emission rates will remain unchanged. Future emissions will instead fund an AI video venture Harmony calls The Remix Economy, described as an open library of prompts and assets for remixing and expansion.
Validator Transition and Market Performance
Validators may power down starting 7 a.m. Pacific on September 10. Harmony will offer a pool worth $1.372 million to validators who sign an agreement and remain as governors.
ONE traded near $0.00074 on Monday, approximately 29% above its August 12 record low. The token's market value stood near $11 million, placing it outside the top 1,000 tokens by market cap. The token has declined over 2% in the past day.
