Harmony Wants to Shut Down Its Layer 1 and Move to Ethereum
Harmony, which launched its own Layer 1 in 2019, is considering a radical scenario: shutting down the network, moving ONE to Ethereum, and ending further maintenance of its standalone blockchain. The proposal follows a critical August exploit that resulted in trillions of unauthorized ONE being created and forced the team to roll back more than 109,000 transactions.
Seven Years of Running Its Own Network
Harmony was built as a fast Layer 1 based on sharding and its own validator system. At the height of its popularity, the ecosystem attracted more than $1 billion in liquidity, while ONE was used for transaction fees, staking, and validator rewards.
But after 2022, the project gradually lost momentum.
One of the biggest blows came in June 2022, when the Horizon Bridge was hacked for roughly $100 million. The FBI later linked the attack to North Korea-linked Lazarus Group and APT38.
The August Exploit Was Far More Serious
On August 11, 2026, Harmony faced a problem not with a separate bridge, but with the mechanics of the network itself.
A flaw in cross-shard receipt processing allowed valid confirmations between shards to be reused. The attacker executed six transactions and created more than 3 trillion ONE that should never have existed.
That left the team with two options: keep the exploit’s effects in the blockchain or restore the network to a state from before the incident.
Harmony chose a rollback.
Along with the malicious transactions, more than 109,000 legitimate user transactions disappeared from the chain’s history.
A Final Snapshot Is Now Being Considered
After the incident, the team proposed another path: take a final snapshot of the network and move ONE to Ethereum as an ERC-20 token.
The snapshot is expected to include:
- regular ONE balances;
- staked tokens;
- unclaimed validator rewards;
- funds held on centralized exchanges.
For users holding ONE in a standard wallet, the transition should be relatively straightforward: the balance would be recorded on Harmony and then reproduced on Ethereum.
Smart contracts are a different matter.
DeFi Will Not Move Automatically
Liquidity pools, multisig wallets, and decentralized applications cannot simply be migrated through a snapshot.
Users whose assets are locked inside Harmony smart contracts are therefore being advised to withdraw them in advance.
This is the key distinction between moving a token and moving an ecosystem.
A token can be recreated on another network relatively easily. The state of DeFi protocols, applications, liquidity positions, and contract-based balances cannot.
For developers and liquidity providers, a shutdown would require either a manual migration or a complete exit.
Validators May Be Paid to Shut Down Nodes
If the plan moves forward, validators could begin shutting down their nodes from September 10.
Harmony has allocated roughly $1.372 million in compensation for network participants who meet the transition requirements.
The economics are almost the reverse of the original model. ONE emissions were previously used to keep validators online and secure the network. Now part of the funding may be used to help shut that infrastructure down in an orderly way.
The Reason Is Not Just Falling Activity
Harmony’s proposal also raises a broader security issue.
The team points to growing threats from state-backed hackers and AI agents capable of finding vulnerabilities in code and infrastructure more quickly.
For a smaller Layer 1, that becomes a significant burden.
A standalone network has to maintain:
- its own client software;
- validators;
- bridges;
- consensus mechanisms;
- updates;
- audits;
- emergency response to critical vulnerabilities.
As activity declines while security costs continue to rise, independent infrastructure can shift from being an advantage to becoming a liability.
ONE May Outlive Harmony’s Blockchain
The team is not planning to abandon the token itself.
Instead, ONE could be redirected into a new model called Remix Economy for AI Video.
The idea is to let creators publish prompts and source materials, while users and AI agents create new videos and remixes based on them.
That would fundamentally change the role of ONE.
The token was originally designed to pay fees and support the security of an independent Layer 1. Under the new model, it could become part of an AI content economy running on Ethereum.
What Makes This Story Different
Harmony is not the first blockchain to suffer a hack, lose liquidity, or fall out of favor with users.
What makes this case unusual is what the team is proposing next.
Harmony is not pitching a new Layer 2, a new consensus mechanism, or another version of its own chain. Instead, it is considering whether maintaining a separate blockchain is necessary at all.
For an industry that spent years treating a standalone Layer 1 as a symbol of technological independence, that is a significant shift.
Sources
CoinDesk — Once-hyped Ethereum rival Harmony wants to shut its blockchain over AI threats