Harmony, a layer-1 blockchain protocol, saw its native token ONE crash to an all-time low of $0.0005735 on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, after an alleged exploit enabled the unauthorized minting of approximately 4 billion ONE tokens. The incident triggered heavy selling pressure and a sharp price decline as the project scrambled to freeze potentially affected funds and investigate the breach. Unauthorized minting exploits are particularly damaging for proof-of-stake networks because they dilute existing holders directly and undermine confidence in the consensus-level controls that govern token issuance.

Details of the Alleged Exploit

The sell-off began after on-chain analyst Juiceberg reported that roughly 4 billion ONE tokens had been minted without authorization through empty blocks. The reported amount represents approximately 26% of ONE's total supply, though Harmony has not independently confirmed that figure.

Harmony exploited as on-chain data reveals unauthorized 4B ONE mint (26% of supply) via empty blocks, with 2.8B quickly funneled to exchanges as price crashed while totalSupply endpoint hides the inflation $ONE — Juiceberg (@the_juice_berg) August 12, 2026

https://x.com/the_juice_berg/status/2087353885765620127

Juiceberg further reported that approximately 2.8 billion of the newly minted tokens were transferred toward exchanges. The reported movement intensified selling pressure, and ONE briefly hit its record low before recovering to around $0.00087, according to BeInCrypto.

Harmony's Response and Containment Efforts

Harmony confirmed the unauthorized minting of approximately 4 billion ONE tokens and stated that it is coordinating with exchanges to freeze funds linked to four identified attacker wallets. The project has paused the Horizon bridge, released a validator patch (v2026.1.1) designed to prevent further unauthorized minting, and is evaluating a network rollback while preparing additional measures to address the already-minted tokens. Network rollbacks, while occasionally used in crypto incident response — most notably by Ethereum after the 2016 DAO hack — remain controversial because they rewrite transaction history and can erode trust in chain immutability.

We are asking all exchanges to block and freeze funds that traces back to these 4 wallet addresses: one1uap8dx2z0qsjxqthm5flgcxkeepsz3gsrghnfn 0xe7427699427821230177dd13f460d6ce43014510 one17u300a40ll5wphd8kj5hktryhdjq3ml9f4phy4 0xf722f7f6afffe8e0dda7b4a97b2c64bb6408efe5… — Harmony (@harmonyprotocol) August 12, 2026

https://x.com/harmonyprotocol/status/2087410115200889135

Market Impact on ONE

ONE's price dropped more than 51% within two hours of the incident, reaching the all-time low of $0.0005735 in the early hours of August 12. By Wednesday morning European time, the token had rebounded 34% and was trading at approximately $0.0007681 at the time of publication.

With a total and circulating supply of 14.87 billion tokens, ONE has a market capitalization of approximately $11.48 million. The token remains 99.8% below its all-time high of $0.379, reached in October 2021.

History of Security Incidents

The incident adds another major security breach to Harmony's track record. In June 2022, the project's Horizon Bridge was exploited for approximately $100 million in crypto assets. U.S. authorities later attributed that attack to North Korean cyber groups Lazarus Group and APT38.

The 2022 incident also sparked controversy over a proposal to mint billions of additional ONE tokens to reimburse affected users. Harmony ultimately faced significant community opposition to that plan.

A second major exploit in four years — this time targeting token issuance directly rather than a bridge — raises fresh concerns about Harmony's validator-level security controls. The breach follows a broader pattern of high-profile exploits across layer-1 and cross-chain infrastructure, including attacks on bridges and consensus mechanisms that have collectively resulted in billions of dollars in losses across the industry and intensified scrutiny of how emerging protocols secure minting authority and validator governance.