- Harmony confirmed that its blockchain was exploited.
- An attacker reportedly minted 4 billion ONE tokens without authorization.
- Around 97% of the newly created tokens are reportedly already on exchanges or have been sold.
- ONE is down around 34% in 24 hours, trading near $0.0008.
- Harmony is working with exchanges to freeze funds and is considering a possible rollback.
- Harmony previously suffered a nearly $100 million hack in 2022.
Harmony has confirmed that its blockchain was exploited after an attacker managed to mint around 4 billion ONE tokens without authorization.
The exploit was first reported by crypto researcher Juiceberg, who said the attacker used empty blocks to create the new tokens.
The news sent ONE sharply lower. The token is down around 34% over the past 24 hours, trading at roughly $0.0008.
At that price, the newly minted tokens would be worth around $3.2 million.
Juiceberg estimates that the attacker has around 115 million ONE tokens left to sell on-chain, equal to roughly 2.9% of the 4 billion tokens created.
The remaining 97% is reportedly already on exchanges or sitting in deposit wallets, meaning most of the tokens may have already been sold or could soon be sold.
Harmony confirmed the attack and said it is working with its team and relevant exchanges to stop and freeze the affected funds.
The project is also developing a patch and evaluating possible rollback options.
Harmony has not yet revealed the exact technical cause of the exploit, and the investigation is still ongoing.
Harmony has been hacked before
This is not Harmony's first major security incident.
In June 2022, its Horizon cross-chain bridge was hacked for nearly $100 million in crypto, including Ethereum and stablecoins.
Security researchers linked the attack to a compromise of the bridge's multisignature wallet. In January 2023, the FBI attributed the hack to the North Korean-backed Lazarus Group and APT38.
Harmony launched its mainnet in 2019 as a proof-of-stake blockchain designed to offer a faster and cheaper alternative to Ethereum.
Its native token, ONE, is used for transaction fees, staking and governance.
