Anso Finance, a Solana-based DeFi project that claims to develop staking services, tokenized real-world assets, and a planned crypto debit card, was rugpulled shortly after its token launch on August 7, 2025, on the decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium.
In an official announcement on X, the team accused former project developer Hamza Yasin of carrying out the entire act, including stealing tokens from the old smart contract, deactivating the website, and attempting to delete the project’s Twitter account. “The website is temporarily offline because all of Hamza’s code has been deleted and removed from our systems”, the team stated.
The team outlined a series of planned measures to recover the project, including launching a new ANSO smart contract, reinstating a $350,000 liquidity pool, reimbursing all holders with their original token balances, fully compensating stakers, and continuing with the original roadmap.
Sequence of Events and Anso Finance’s Allegations
Despite announcing the launch for 1:00 PM UTC, the team listed the ANSO token more than an hour early, with the first transaction recorded at 11:37 AM UTC at $0.01. Within less than an hour, after hundreds of blockchain transactions, the price had dropped 34% to $0.006592.
At 12:24 wallet address GA1wy...EwzJiq sold 320,788,585 ANSO tokens, collecting approximately $133,000. That transaction caused a steep price drop of 99.99% to a price of $0.00002649.
At 13:30 UTC, the team published an official statement on X, blaming Yassin for:
"drained the smart contract including vesting, staking, and reserve tokens and dumped everything."
And encouraged investors to report him to the Pakistani FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) to help accelerate the process.
Hamza Yasin’s Response and Counterclaims
Hamza Yasin, in multiple LinkedIn posts, denied any involvement in a rugpull or theft. He described himself as an external contractor hired to develop Anso Finance’s ICO, vesting, and staking smart contracts. According to Yasin, the ICO and vesting contracts were fully audited by SolidProof before deployment, while the staking contract underwent only an internal audit at the client’s request. He stated that wallet upgrade authority for both contracts was shared between himself and the Anso team from the start, at their request.
Yasin alleges that the Anso Finance team, or someone they authorized, used that authority to upgrade the vesting contract with a drain function. He claims the client had the vesting contract source code because it was provided for the external audit, and that the upgrade preserved the contract’s state but redirected token flows. He included a transaction link as evidence and says the drain was followed by a swap of 780 SOL from the vesting contract.
He further alleges that the staking contract source code was never given to the client, as they had declined an external audit, and that their blind upgrade erased all staking states and replaced the bytecode with a drain method from the staking PDA. Yasin argued that only a wallet with upgrade authority could have performed these actions. He also alleged that the team refused video calls, used fake identities, and deleted the website and project social channels. Yasin stated he is cooperating with the FIA Cyber Crime Wing in Pakistan and has submitted evidence that he says demonstrates his innocence.
Derogatory and Racially Charged Remark in Shared Screenshot
As a side note, in one LinkedIn post related to the Anso Finance dispute, Hamza Yasin included a screenshot of a conversation about the rugpull between himself and one of the co-founders, named in the screenshot as “Sonnydoesit”. The exchange included a derogatory and racially charged remark:
“Go your way, scumbag broke Pakistani, stinking spice.”
Nate Flake, Listed as Head of Media, Says Anso Finance Misled Him
Nate Flake, listed on the Anso Finance website as Head of Media, has accused the project of misleading and misrepresenting him. In an Instagram video, the content creator said he was approached in May 2025 through Fiverr to produce spokesperson videos for what was described as a financial platform. Flake said he agreed to a discounted rate after being told there would be 4–5 videos per week — a volume that never materialized.
According to Flake, the client later asked to list him on the website as a “social media advisor”. However, he eventually discovered he was displayed as “Head of Media” with a description of responsibilities he had never agreed to perform. He said he repeatedly demanded to be removed from the site from June through early August. However, the listing remained, at one point altered to “Nate Media”. On August 7, the day the ANSO token collapsed, Flake said he was flooded with messages accusing him of involvement in the alleged rug pull.
Flake stated his only work for Anso Finance was the initial Fiverr video and alleged that the project used his name and image without consent, including in their Telegram group. He also said another freelancer (Hamza Yasin) reported being listed on the website without agreement. According to Flake, the people who hired him used fake names and profiles, and the project deleted its online presence after launch.
Background on Anso Finance and Its Development
Anso Finance launched its presale on June 23, 2025, raising approximately $1.5 million across several stages. The ANSO token was designed as the core asset of a DeFi platform offering high-yield staking, tokenized real-world assets, and a planned crypto debit card called AnsoCard. Tokenomics allocated 20% of the supply to the presale and an additional 17% in bonus tokens for presale buyers, along with a vesting schedule intended to limit early sell-offs.
The project listed Matthijs Maxime as CEO and Tibbe Groen as COO, presenting them as a fully doxxed team before launch, with Hamza Yasin named as Head of Development. Tibbe Groen’s LinkedIn profile, active before the token launch, is currently inaccessible. It remains unclear whether the co-founders’ names, social media accounts, and LinkedIn profiles represent verified identities.
