Catenaa, Wednesday, September 09, 2026-Harmony plans to shut down its Layer 1 blockchain and has proposed migrating its ONE token to Ethereum after repeated security threats, the project announced Sunday.
Harmony said validators can begin shutting down nodes Sept. 10 as the network prepares for its final block.
The project proposed taking a final snapshot covering ONE held in user wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts and centralized exchanges.
Harmony said replacement ONE tokens would then be airdropped to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum. Holders, delegators and validators would not need to claim them manually.
However, Harmony said multisignature wallets, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be migrated automatically.
The project urged users with assets inside smart contracts to withdraw them before Sept. 10 to avoid being left outside the migration process.
Delegated stakes and unclaimed validator rewards would be transferred into individual governor vaults under Harmony’s proposal.
Harmony said ONE’s total supply and emission rate would remain unchanged. Future token issuance would be directed toward the project’s proposed AI video business.
The project has set aside about $1.37 million to compensate qualifying validators who shut down their nodes, retain their stakes and move into governance roles.
Harmony plans to replace its blockchain-centered model with what it calls an AI video “remix economy.”
Under the proposed system, selected creators would publish AI video prompts and digital assets. Fans could remix those materials, while AI agents would generate additional video variations.
Harmony said advertising from a user base of 1 million could generate tens of millions of dollars.
The shutdown follows a major exploit in August that initially appeared to have created 4 billion unauthorized ONE tokens.
Harmony’s later investigation found the attacker had forged more than 3 trillion ONE across six transactions by exploiting flaws in cross-shard receipt verification.
The vulnerability allowed valid receipts to be processed repeatedly, creating new ONE without an equivalent debit elsewhere.
Harmony subsequently rolled its blockchain back to a point before the forged transactions and said migration of ONE was among the options under consideration.
The network had already suffered a major security failure in June 2022, when attackers stole nearly $100 million from its Horizon cross-chain bridge.
The FBI later attributed that attack to North Korea-backed Lazarus Group and APT38 hackers.
Harmony launched its mainnet in 2019 as a sharded Layer 1 designed to support decentralized applications with faster and cheaper transactions.
Its proposed retirement would end that seven-year independent blockchain operation while preserving ONE as an Ethereum-based token.
The transition would also mark a sharp change in Harmony’s business direction, moving from operating blockchain infrastructure toward an AI-driven creator economy.
