Harmony Proposes Layer-1 Shutdown, ONE Migration to Ethereum

Harmony, the Ethereum-compatible layer-1 network, has proposed shutting down its native blockchain and migrating its ONE token to Ethereum, a move that would effectively end the project’s independent chain seven years after its mainnet launch. The proposal, announced on Sunday, calls for a final network snapshot, the issuance of ERC-20 ONE tokens on Ethereum, and the migration of exchange listings to the new standard.

The proposal is non-binding and does not specify when the final block would be produced. Under Harmony’s governance rules, elected validators can create proposals, while unelected validators may vote. Passage requires 51 percent of total stake weight to participate and 66.7 percent support, following a seven-day introduction period and a 14-day vote.

Validators face three options under the plan: stop their nodes entirely, continue operating as governors of the network, or join a new AI-video initiative that Harmony is positioning as a successor project. A $1.372 million pool has been set aside to compensate validators who stop on time, retain their stakes, and agree to serve as governors.

The migration mechanism is designed to be comprehensive for most token holders. The snapshot would cover wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchange balances, with no claims process required for users to receive their new ERC-20 tokens. However, Harmony acknowledged that multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain applications cannot be migrated, and urged users to exit all smart contracts before September 10. Validators may begin shutting down as early as that date.

The proposal arrives less than four weeks after a significant security breach. On August 12, Harmony said it was considering a rollback after reports that an attacker had minted nearly 4 billion unauthorized ONE tokens, equivalent to roughly 26 percent of the total supply. An outside account claimed that about 2.8 billion of those tokens had reached exchanges, though Harmony had not confirmed the figures at the time.

Five days later, Harmony announced plans to revert the blockchain to an August 11 checkpoint, which would discard 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions. Investigators had traced nearly all of the forged tokens to specific wallets or service boundaries, and Harmony said it was working with exchanges, bridges, and law enforcement on the matter.

The shift from rollback to full shutdown represents a significant strategic pivot. Rather than attempting to repair and continue operating its own chain, Harmony appears to be conceding that the cost and complexity of maintaining a secure layer-1 network may no longer be justified, particularly after a compromise that called into question the integrity of its transaction history. The decision to migrate to Ethereum, rather than another chain, reflects the network’s existing compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and the relative ease with which token holders can transition.

For ONE holders, the proposal offers a straightforward path: their balances will be preserved through the snapshot and reissued on Ethereum with no action required. The main risks lie with users who hold tokens in smart contracts or liquidity pools that cannot be migrated, and with validators who must decide whether to wind down, remain as governors, or pivot to the AI-video initiative.

The governance vote will determine whether Harmony follows through on the proposal. If approved, the network will join a growing list of projects that have chosen to abandon standalone chains in favor of Ethereum’s established ecosystem. If rejected, Harmony would need to chart a different course, likely involving a more conventional recovery from the exploit. Either way, the coming weeks will define whether the project’s seven-year run as an independent network comes to a close.