Harmony has proposed shutting down the Layer 1 blockchain it launched in 2019 and migrating its native ONE token to Ethereum, bringing validator-based operation of the network to an end following a series of security failures and years of declining ecosystem activity. Harmony was one of several 2018–2019-era Layer 1s that marketed fast finality and sharding-based scaling, a cohort that has struggled to retain developers and users as liquidity and activity consolidated around Ethereum, Solana and a small set of newer networks.

Under the network sunset proposal, Harmony will take a snapshot at the final block and issue corresponding ERC-20 ONE tokens to the same addresses on Ethereum. The migration covers wallet balances, centralized exchange holdings, staking delegations and validator rewards, and ordinary holders will not need to submit a manual claim.

Users Must Exit Smart Contracts Before September 10

Liquidity pools, multisig safes and other onchain applications cannot be transferred to Ethereum automatically. Users holding ONE or other assets inside Harmony smart contracts have been instructed to exit those positions before September 10, 2026.

Under the proposed structure, delegated ONE and unclaimed staking rewards would be moved into individual governor vaults. Before the migration, Harmony intends to publish the ERC-20 contract, the governor-vault contract, snapshot calculations and airdrop scripts for public review.

The ONE supply and emission schedule would remain unchanged. The proposal is non-binding, however, and Harmony has not yet published the final block height or a definitive date for the permanent stop of the Layer 1.

Harmony is not alone in consolidating onto a larger ecosystem. Moonbeam recently left Polkadot for Base, migrating GLMR at a 1:1 ratio as its parachain winds down. Similar moves by smaller chains reflect the growing difficulty of sustaining independent validator sets, bridge infrastructure and developer ecosystems at smaller scale, particularly after high-profile exploits.

August Exploit Accelerated Harmony's Security Crisis

The shutdown proposal comes less than a month after Harmony suffered another major protocol failure. The August attack first appeared as an unauthorized 4 billion ONE mint, but subsequent reconstruction showed that roughly 3.01 trillion ONE had been forged across six transactions.

The vulnerability allowed valid cross-shard receipts to be processed repeatedly, creating ONE without a corresponding debit elsewhere. Harmony ultimately prepared a rollback to its August 11 state, a recovery process that discarded more than 109,000 regular transactions. The rollback itself was contentious, as reverting chain state to undo forged tokens is a measure most major networks avoid because it undermines transaction immutability.

The attack followed the $100 million Horizon Bridge theft in 2022, which the FBI later attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group and APT38. Bridge exploits have repeatedly proven to be among the costliest attack vectors in the industry, with cross-chain protocols accounting for some of the largest thefts in crypto history. In proposing the Layer 1 shutdown, Harmony cited security threats from state-backed attackers and increasingly capable AI agents.

Validators Offered $1.372M to Become Governors

Validators can begin shutting down their nodes at 7:00 a.m. Pacific on September 10. Harmony has allocated $1.372 million for a one-time compensation program, an amount equal to network-wide validator rewards during the year preceding the August attack.

Payments would be distributed across four quarters to eligible validators and delegators who stop their nodes on schedule, sign the required agreement, retain their stake and continue as governors.

Future ONE emissions would instead support Harmony's proposed "Remix Economy for AI Video," in which creators publish prompts and reusable assets while AI agents expand them into new video content. Operators would stake ONE, run GPU infrastructure and earn rewards tied to service availability. The pivot aligns with a broader industry trend of token networks redirecting incentives toward decentralized GPU and AI compute markets.

Harmony plans to subsidize GPU hardware during the first year and is targeting up to $1 million in combined operator revenue. Both the Layer 1 shutdown and the AI-video plans remain non-binding, while users with assets inside Harmony smart contracts face the earlier September 10 exit deadline.

Source: Crypto Adventure