Harmony Suffers Critical Exploit As 4B ONE Are Minted Without Authorization, ZachXBT Boycotts Recovery Efforts

by
Alisa Davidson

Printed: August 12, 2026 at 4:15 am Up to date: August 12, 2026 at 4:15 am

by Anastasiia O

Edited and fact-checked:
August 12, 2026 at 4:15 am

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Concord, a Layer 1 blockchain, has confirmed a crucial exploit by which roughly 4 billion ONE tokens had been minted with out authorization through empty blocks, representing roughly 26% of the token’s pre-existing provide. 

On-chain analyst Juiceberg reported that the attacker shortly routed round 2.8 billion ONE to centralized exchanges because the token worth collapsed. In accordance with Juiceberg, the attacker retains solely about 115 million ONE on-chain—roughly 2.9% of the illicit provide—whereas “the overwhelming majority, roughly 97%, is already on exchanges and has both been offered or is sitting in deposit wallets able to promote.”

The market response was speedy. ONE plunged roughly 40% to commerce close to $0.0008, inserting the nominal worth of the stolen tokens at roughly $3.2 million. Compounding the opacity, Concord’s totalSupply endpoint didn’t instantly replicate the inflation, probably obscuring the dilution from customers and monitoring programs.

In response, Concord instructed validators to put in an emergency patch stopping additional minting, paused its token bridge, and printed 4 pockets addresses linked to the incident, asking exchanges to freeze related funds. The community said it’s creating a complete patch and evaluating rollback choices.

Investigator Boycott and Rollback Dilemma Complicate Restoration

The incident has drawn renewed scrutiny to Concord’s historical past of safety lapses and its therapy of the investigator neighborhood. On-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly refused to help with the present incident, stating: “I can’t be monitoring this incident and suppose nobody ought to help them without spending a dime.” 

He cited Concord’s dealing with of the 2022 Horizon Bridge exploit—attributed by the FBI to North Korea’s Lazarus Group—by which the community allegedly “took benefit of people that assisted” and “rewarded $0 for vital freezes which result in LE seizures and easily stated ‘good job.’”

This boycott emphasises a deepening belief deficit as Concord considers a blockchain rollback, which might revert the community to a pre-exploit state however erase subsequent transactions—a measure extensively considered as antithetical to blockchain immutability. The duty is additional difficult by the truth that most funds have already reached exchanges. 

The exploit additionally marks Concord’s third main safety failure lately, following a December 2023 staking bug that created 146.3 million ONE and the 2022 bridge assault that drained roughly $100 million. Concord has not but disclosed the technical root trigger of the present breach.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, focuses on crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising tendencies and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and interact readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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