Harmony plans to sunset its Layer 1 blockchain and migrate ONE to Ethereum after recent security exploits, while shifting its focus toward an AI powered video “remix economy.”
ETH$2,487.75-0.14%
ONE$0.000721-2.43%Harmony plans to shut down its Layer 1 blockchain and migrate its native ONE token to Ethereum, marking a major shift for the seven-year-old network. The project says continued security threats, including risks from state actors and AI agents, have made it too difficult to continue operating the mainnet.
Instead, Harmony wants to redirect its resources toward an AI powered video initiative built around a “remix economy,” where creators publish prompts and assets that users can modify and AI agents can turn into additional content.
The proposed transition would also move ONE from Harmony's own network to Ethereum through a new token distribution.
Harmony launched its mainnet in 2019, but the network has faced several serious security incidents over the years.
Under the latest proposal, validators will be able to stop operating their nodes starting September 10, 2026. Harmony has also allocated $1.37 million to compensate eligible validators that shut down their nodes, maintain their stakes, sign the required agreement and transition into “governors” for the project's new initiative.
Related: Harmony to Roll Back nearly a week of its chain history after 4B ONE token exploit
The decision comes only weeks after Harmony suffered another major security incident involving the unauthorized creation of ONE tokens.
In August, Harmony initially reported that an attacker had minted about 4 billion ONE. A later reconstruction found that more than 3 trillion ONE tokens had been forged across six transactions. The vulnerability involved cross-shard receipt verification, which allowed valid receipts to be processed more than once and tokens to be created without a corresponding debit.
Harmony subsequently rolled the network back to a point before the exploit.
The latest decision effectively takes that security crisis one step further: rather than continuing to operate the Layer 1, Harmony now wants to retire it completely.
Harmony has proposed issuing new ONE tokens on Ethereum and migrating exchange listings as part of the transition.
The proposed process would take a snapshot of ONE holdings at the final Harmony block. This would include:
New ONE tokens would then be distributed on Ethereum to the corresponding wallet addresses, according to Harmony's proposal.
Harmony says holders, delegators and validators would not need to manually initiate the migration.
There is an important exception, however. Multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be migrated automatically. Harmony has therefore urged users to exit those smart contracts before the September 10 deadline.
The project also says the token's total supply and emission rate will remain unchanged.
The decision follows a difficult period for Harmony.
The August exploit exposed a flaw in the network's cross-shard transaction verification. According to security researchers, the attacker ultimately forged approximately 3.01 trillion ONE across six transactions. Harmony patched the vulnerability and planned a rollback to remove the forged state.
The incident was not Harmony's first major security problem.
In June 2022, its Horizon bridge suffered a roughly $100 million cryptocurrency theft. The FBI later confirmed that North Korean cyber actors associated with the Lazarus Group and APT38 were responsible for the attack.
The latest shutdown therefore comes after repeated security challenges involving both the network itself and its infrastructure.
The pattern also reflects a broader problem across crypto. Recent incidents such as the Coldcard Bitcoin wallet hack have shown that vulnerabilities can emerge from unexpected parts of the technology stack, even when the underlying blockchain itself is not compromised.
Rather than simply winding down the project, Harmony is proposing a new direction centered on AI-generated video.
The concept is described as a “remix economy.” A small group of AI video creators would publish original prompts and assets. Fans could then fork those creations, while AI agents would transform each remix into additional videos and other content.
Harmony believes advertising could eventually generate tens of millions of dollars if the platform reaches around one million users.
The project also wants former validators to become “governors” within this new ecosystem. That gives existing network participants a potential role after Layer 1 is shut down.
It represents a significant change in strategy. Harmony is moving away from competing as a standalone blockchain and toward an application-focused model built around AI generated content.
For ONE holders, the proposed migration is the most immediate issue.
Harmony says the final network snapshot would determine the balances eligible for the Ethereum-based ONE tokens. The project has also said that exchange listings would be migrated as part of the transition.
However, users holding ONE through liquidity pools, multisig wallets or other onchain applications face additional considerations because those positions cannot simply be copied to Ethereum.
Harmony's September 10 deadline is therefore particularly important for users interacting with the network's smart contracts.
The project has not described the move as an abandonment of the ONE token. Instead, it wants to preserve the token while changing the blockchain infrastructure behind it.
Harmony's shutdown highlights how quickly a blockchain's priorities can change after a major security failure.
The network survived for seven years, but the combination of its latest exploit, previous bridge attack and continuing security concerns has pushed the project toward a complete Layer 1 sunset.
The broader crypto industry is already seeing more attention on infrastructure level vulnerabilities. Recent security data showed 50 major crypto hacks in August alone, causing approximately $136.3 million in losses, reinforcing how persistent the problem remains.
Harmony's proposed move to Ethereum will not eliminate all security risks, but it would remove the burden of maintaining its own Layer 1 while allowing the project to focus on its new AI-video strategy.
For now, the key date is September 10, when validators can begin shutting down Harmony nodes and users with assets inside unsupported smart contracts are expected to exit.
The next phase of Harmony will therefore look very different from the blockchain launched in 2019: ONE would live on Ethereum, validators could become governors, and the project's main growth bet would shift from Layer 1 infrastructure to AI generated video.
The Coldcard exploiter has moved 45% of the Bitcoin stolen in the third wave of attacks, with Galaxy Research tracking 97.09 BTC already moved through swaps and CoinJoin transactions.
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