{"investigation":{"slug":"anubis-dao","entity_name":"AnubisDAO","trust_score":2,"severity_base":null,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.82,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"AnubisDAO was a dog-themed DeFi project that launched a 24-hour token sale on October 28, 2021, raising approximately 13,597 ETH (~$60 million) through the sale of its native ANKH token on the Copper liquidity bootstrapping platform. Twenty hours into the fundraise, all pooled funds were drained to an external wallet by the address that had created and controlled the liquidity pool, leaving investors holding worthless ANKH tokens with no liquid market. No funds have been recovered; the project had no website, whitepaper, or publicly identified team at launch.","sections":[{"content":"AnubisDAO presented itself as a fork of OlympusDAO, a reserve-currency DeFi protocol, with a canine-themed branding in the style of projects such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. The project offered no website, no whitepaper, and no publicly identified founding team at the time of its token sale. All developers operated under pseudonyms. Despite these red flags, the project raised approximately 13,597 ETH — worth roughly $60 million at prevailing market prices — within 20 hours of launching a liquidity bootstrapping pool (LBP) on the Copper crowdfunding platform. The ANKH token was the project's native governance and reserve asset.","heading":"Project Background","sources":[{"url":"https://decrypt.co/84924/anubisdao-investors-lose-60-million-in-alleged-rug-pull","name":"decrypt.co","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/anubisdao-rug-pulls-investors/","name":"cryptopolitan.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/crypto-investor-says-he-lost-6-figures-on-a-dog-inspired-defi-project.html","name":"cnbc.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"On October 29, 2021, approximately 20 hours after the token sale began, 13,556.36 ETH (roughly $60 million) was transferred out of the AnubisDAO liquidity pool to the address 0x9fc53c75046900d1f58209f50f534852ae9f912a, subsequently labeled 'AnubisDAO Liquidity Rug 2' on Etherscan. The wallet that drained the pool was the same address that had originally deployed and controlled the LBP smart contract; it held the vast majority of liquidity provider (LP) tokens, enabling it to redeem nearly the entire pool. Investors were left holding ANKH tokens with no liquid trading market. The Copper platform confirmed that neither its platform nor the underlying Balancer smart contracts were exploited — the drain was executed by an authorized keyholder acting unilaterally.","heading":"The Alleged Rug Pull","sources":[{"url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/60m-stolen-from-anubisdao-crypto-fundraise/","name":"cryptobriefing.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://medium.com/@fjordfoundry/a-statement-from-the-copper-team-regarding-the-anubisdao-token-launch-on-copper-f78be774d9ec","name":"medium.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x9fc53c75046900d1f58209f50f534852ae9f912a","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=60-million-disappears-in-anubisdao","name":"web3isgoinggreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"The only named DAO participant to publicly comment was a pseudonymous individual known as 'Sisyphus' (later alleged to use the handle '0xSisyphus'). Sisyphus stated: 'The critical mistake was giving full control of the liquidity pool to a single developer.' Sisyphus offered a 1,000 ETH bounty for information leading to recovery of funds and engaged both US and Hong Kong law enforcement. The pseudonymous developer known as 'Beerus' (Twitter: @Beerus, later @cryptofan777) was identified as the wallet controller who executed the drain. Beerus claimed to have been phished via a malicious PDF that exposed private keys. Sisyphus publicly disputed this account, stating with 'a high degree of certainty' that the drain was not caused by a phishing attack. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT separately traced 95 ETH from bsl.eth (an address owned by Beerus) to an address belonging to an individual named 'Ersan,' alleged to be a friend of Beerus and linked to coordinated online casino scam operations.","heading":"Key Individuals and Pseudonymous Team","sources":[{"url":"https://cryptoslate.com/police-forces-jump-into-anubisdao-saga-after-60-million-rug/","name":"cryptoslate.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/84924/anubisdao-investors-lose-60-million-in-alleged-rug-pull","name":"decrypt.co","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/21342116/","name":"cryptonews.net","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"The stolen funds remained largely dormant for approximately eight months after the incident. In June and July 2022, wallets connected to the AnubisDAO drain began moving funds for the first time. Between July 15 and 16, 2022, 1,018 ETH (approximately $1.18 million at prevailing prices) was laundered through Tornado Cash, a privacy-preserving Ethereum mixer. The funds were moved in increments of 100 ETH. The broader cache of stolen ETH was moved through multiple intermediary addresses, bridged to Polygon, and consolidated into exchange deposit accounts. Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on August 8, 2022, under OFAC, due to its widespread use in laundering proceeds from hacks and fraud.","heading":"Fund Movement and Laundering","sources":[{"url":"https://crypto.news/anubisdao-funds-move-rug-pull-1018-eth-tornado-cash/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/anubis-dao-rug-pull-money-washes-away-on-tornado-cash","name":"cointelegraph.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916","name":"home.treasury.gov","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Following the incident, 0xSisyphus reported contacting both US law enforcement (described as the Department of Homeland Security in contemporaneous reporting) and Hong Kong police authorities. Beerus allegedly filed a police report with Hong Kong authorities and submitted computer hardware for forensic investigation. No public charges, arrests, or indictments resulting from these law enforcement contacts have been confirmed as of May 2026. The absence of any confirmed regulatory action — despite the scale of the loss — is consistent with the pseudonymous and cross-jurisdictional nature of the parties involved.","heading":"Law Enforcement and Regulatory Response","sources":[{"url":"https://cryptoslate.com/police-forces-jump-into-anubisdao-saga-after-60-million-rug/","name":"cryptoslate.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2021/11/02/police-force-investigating-anubisdaos-rug-pull-incident/","name":"cryptotimes.io","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"In October 2023, an anonymous account called NFT Ethics published a thread alleging that Kevin Pawlak, a former Head of Ventures at OpenSea who departed the company in June 2023, operated behind the 0xSisyphus pseudonym and was involved in various alleged pump-and-dump schemes in addition to the AnubisDAO incident. OpenSea responded that Pawlak had held a 'limited scope' non-management role at the company and that it was unaware of involvement in the projects described. ZachXBT publicly critiqued the NFT Ethics thread as 'one of the most mid-curve' analyses he had encountered, noting it relied on 'unrelated events without facts,' and pointed to 0xSisyphus's cooperation with law enforcement as evidence against the theory that Sisyphus was the primary perpetrator. These allegations remain unproven.","heading":"Allegations Against Former OpenSea Executive","sources":[{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/opensea-kevin-pawlak-sisyphus-accused-rug-pull","name":"cointelegraph.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ex-opensea-exec-accused-of-pump-dump-60m-rug-pull/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://protos.com/from-60m-failure-to-crypto-scam-cop-the-reinvention-of-0xsisyphus/","name":"protos.com","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Individual investor losses in the AnubisDAO incident were substantial. CNBC profiled one investor, Brian Nguyen, who reported losing $470,000 in the event. Community estimates suggest hundreds of investors participated in the 20-hour token sale. No compensation, recovery, or buyback mechanism has been established as of the time of this writing. The ANKH token lost all practical value after the liquidity was removed. The Copper platform, in response to the incident, removed the LBP discovery list from its interface and announced plans to implement curated project lists to reduce the discoverability of unvetted token sales.","heading":"Investor Impact","sources":[{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/crypto-investor-says-he-lost-6-figures-on-a-dog-inspired-defi-project.html","name":"cnbc.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://medium.com/@fjordfoundry/a-statement-from-the-copper-team-regarding-the-anubisdao-token-launch-on-copper-f78be774d9ec","name":"medium.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/84924/anubisdao-investors-lose-60-million-in-alleged-rug-pull","name":"decrypt.co","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"Multiple Etherscan-labeled addresses have been associated with the AnubisDAO drain: 0x9fc53c75046900d1f58209f50f534852ae9f912a ('AnubisDAO Liquidity Rug 2'), 0xb1302743acf31f567e9020810523f5030942e211 ('AnubisDAO Liquidity Rug 3'), and 0x872254d530ae8983628cb1eaafc51f78d78c86d9 ('AnubisDAO Liquidity Rug 1'). ZachXBT's on-chain trace identified bsl.eth (Beerus) sending 95 ETH to address 0x51da686c7a2f973ad11fafed6ce9a3ffc020349f, alleged to belong to Ersan. Ersan was further linked to CSGORoll, an online casino platform reportedly associated with coordinated fraud schemes. The funds bridged to Polygon and entered exchange infrastructure before any additional public tracing was possible.","heading":"On-Chain Forensics","sources":[{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x9fc53c75046900d1f58209f50f534852ae9f912a","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0xb1302743acf31f567e9020810523f5030942e211","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x872254d530ae8983628cb1eaafc51f78d78c86d9","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/21342116/","name":"cryptonews.net","type":"other","credibility":3}],"severity":"medium"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2021-10-28","event":"AnubisDAO launches a 24-hour Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP) on the Copper platform, selling the ANKH token. No website, whitepaper, or named team is disclosed.","source":""},{"date":"2021-10-29","event":"Approximately 20 hours into the token sale, 13,556.36 ETH (~$60 million) is drained from the liquidity pool by the wallet that deployed and controlled the LBP contract. ANKH token loses all practical value.","source":""},{"date":"2021-10-29","event":"0xSisyphus publicly attributes the drain to 'gross negligence' in granting a single developer full control of the pool. Beerus (@cryptofan777) claims the incident was caused by a phishing attack on his private keys.","source":""},{"date":"2021-10-30","event":"0xSisyphus contacts Hong Kong and US law enforcement (reportedly Department of Homeland Security) and offers a 1,000 ETH bounty for recovery or identification of the drainer.","source":""},{"date":"2021-11-02","event":"Reports confirm police forces in Hong Kong and the United States are investigating the AnubisDAO incident. Beerus files a police report with Hong Kong authorities and surrenders computer hardware.","source":""},{"date":"2022-07-15","event":"Eight months after the rug pull, wallets associated with the AnubisDAO drain begin moving funds for the first time. 1,018 ETH (~$1.18 million) is laundered through Tornado Cash in 100 ETH tranches.","source":""},{"date":"2022-08-08","event":"US Treasury / OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash, the mixer used to launder a portion of the AnubisDAO stolen funds.","source":""},{"date":"2023-10-06","event":"Anonymous account NFT Ethics publishes a thread alleging that Kevin Pawlak, former Head of Ventures at OpenSea, is the person behind 0xSisyphus and tied to the AnubisDAO incident. OpenSea denies knowledge of any involvement. ZachXBT publicly disputes the analysis.","source":""}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://decrypt.co/84924/anubisdao-investors-lose-60-million-in-alleged-rug-pull","name":"decrypt.co","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/anubisdao-rug-pulls-investors/","name":"cryptopolitan.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/crypto-investor-says-he-lost-6-figures-on-a-dog-inspired-defi-project.html","name":"cnbc.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cryptobriefing.com/60m-stolen-from-anubisdao-crypto-fundraise/","name":"cryptobriefing.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://medium.com/@fjordfoundry/a-statement-from-the-copper-team-regarding-the-anubisdao-token-launch-on-copper-f78be774d9ec","name":"medium.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x9fc53c75046900d1f58209f50f534852ae9f912a","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=60-million-disappears-in-anubisdao","name":"web3isgoinggreat.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cryptoslate.com/police-forces-jump-into-anubisdao-saga-after-60-million-rug/","name":"cryptoslate.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/21342116/","name":"cryptonews.net","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/anubisdao-funds-move-rug-pull-1018-eth-tornado-cash/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/anubis-dao-rug-pull-money-washes-away-on-tornado-cash","name":"cointelegraph.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916","name":"home.treasury.gov","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2021/11/02/police-force-investigating-anubisdaos-rug-pull-incident/","name":"cryptotimes.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/opensea-kevin-pawlak-sisyphus-accused-rug-pull","name":"cointelegraph.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://crypto.news/ex-opensea-exec-accused-of-pump-dump-60m-rug-pull/","name":"crypto.news","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://protos.com/from-60m-failure-to-crypto-scam-cop-the-reinvention-of-0xsisyphus/","name":"protos.com","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0xb1302743acf31f567e9020810523f5030942e211","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://etherscan.io/address/0x872254d530ae8983628cb1eaafc51f78d78c86d9","name":"etherscan.io","type":"other","credibility":3}],"source_tags":[],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-sonnet-4-6","created_at":"2026-05-30T19:10:14.138741+00:00","updated_at":"2026-08-29T01:34:19.123+00:00"}}