Harmony to Roll Back Both Shards to Erase 3.01 Trillion Forged ONE Tokens

Harmony will execute a blockchain rollback across Shard 0 and Shard 1 to remove 3.01 trillion unauthorized ONE tokens minted in a recent exploit, restoring the network to the last confirmed block before the fraudulent minting. In an incident update posted on X on August 17, 2026, Harmony said validators are preparing to rewind both shards, discarding all blocks and transactions recorded after the restoration point. The move is intended to eliminate more than three trillion forged ONE created through the attack. Harmony said it evaluated other recovery paths, including token burns, blacklisting exploiter wallets, and migrating ONE holders. The team concluded those options could introduce technical complications or inadvertently impact ordinary users, especially because forged assets had already moved through multiple services. By applying a fixed rollback window across the network rather than targeting specific wallets, Harmony said it reduces the risk of new attack vectors and consensus failures. Investigators first confirmed the exploit on August 12 after spotting unauthorized ONE entering the network. Initial estimates pointed to roughly 4 billion tokens created via empty blocks, but further review identified 3.01 trillion forged ONE across six transactions. Those transactions were linked to four exploiter wallets; one wallet moved nearly 2.4 trillion ONE within two minutes. At pre-exploit prices, the forged tokens were valued at nearly $3 billion, though Harmony noted available liquidity would have limited realizable proceeds. While most of the forged supply has been traced to identifiable wallets or services, movements through decentralized exchanges and bridges have complicated recovery. Some forged ONE also entered liquidity pools and mixed with other users' funds, raising the risk that burns or freezes could affect uninvolved participants. Harmony attributed the incident to a cross-shard receipt verification weakness that allegedly allowed legitimate receipts to be processed multiple times, enabling attackers to mint new ONE without an offsetting debit elsewhere on the network. Harmony said the vulnerability was fully patched on August 12 after developers identified the root cause. The rollback will also remove legitimate transactions recorded during the affected window. Users may need to reconcile transfers and other activity that will no longer exist after the chain is restored. Despite this disruption, Harmony said a selective approach to clawing back tokens would be riskier given how widely the forged assets had already spread. Validators will implement the rollback across both shards to finalize the restored network state.