Harmony’s ONE plunges 40% after attacker mints 4 billion tokens

Harmony’s ONE token plunged roughly 40% on Wednesday after an attacker exploited the Layer 1 blockchain to mint approximately 4 billion new tokens, equivalent to more than a quarter of the existing supply. Onchain analyst Juiceberg first identified the unauthorized mint, estimating that roughly 2.8 billion ONE had been transferred to exchanges. The analyst later estimated that around 97% of the newly created tokens had either reached exchange deposit wallets or already been sold, leaving approximately 115 million ONE available to sell onchain. Harmony said it was working with exchanges to freeze funds linked to the exploit and identified four wallet addresses associated with the incident. The network also said it was evaluating rollback options. Harmony later paused its bridge and released an emergency software update for validators that it said would prevent additional unauthorized minting. The project said a separate update would be required to address the tokens already created. Harmony has not yet disclosed the vulnerability behind the exploit or provided its own confirmed figure for the amount of ONE created or transferred to exchanges. Its reported circulating supply before t...