Harmony Protocol Hit by Unauthorized Mint of 4B ONE; ZachXBT Says No Free Tracking

Harmony Protocol (ONE) has disclosed a major security incident involving the unauthorized minting of about 4 billion ONE tokens—roughly 26% of the total supply—adding to a wave of recent crypto breaches. Blockchain data cited by early reporting from Juiceberg indicates the attacker minted ONE using empty blocks. Around 2.8 billion ONE was moved to exchanges, while about 115 million ONE remained available for on-chain selling—close to 3% of the illicitly minted amount. Harmony explorer data shows most of the newly minted tokens were routed to exchanges, sold, or left in deposit addresses. ONE's price dropped more than 54% at the initial shock, later trimming losses to about 38% at the time of reporting. Open interest climbed sharply during the sell-off, pointing to increased use of leveraged shorts. Separately, industry trackers recorded $12.37 million in exploit-related losses during the first 12 days of August, excluding Harmony's incident. Harmony said it is coordinating with exchanges to freeze funds. After evaluating patch and rollback paths, the team asked exchanges to block and freeze assets tied to four wallet addresses. It also flagged 10,288 suspicious deposit transactions across 409 wallets where the fraudulent tokens were received. The protocol said 53% of validators had completed an upgrade and urged the rest to apply the patch, noting it prevents additional minting. Harmony described a rollback as the most viable practical response. On-chain investigator ZachXBT criticized Harmony's outreach and urged others not to provide assistance without compensation. He said Harmony previously benefited from community help during the 2022 $100 million Harmony Bridge exploit attributed to DPRK-linked actors, yet paid "0" despite significant freezes that contributed to law-enforcement seizures, offering only a "good job." The stance drew mixed reactions, with some users saying they have historically helped on incidents in exchange for recognition rather than payment. Summary: Harmony confirmed an exploit that minted roughly 4 billion ONE via empty blocks, sparking a steep market sell-off. ZachXBT is discouraging free tracking support, citing dissatisfaction with how Harmony handled compensation after its prior $100 million breach.