RIFT – Routing Intelligence Futures Trading: Legit or Scam?

Just to put the record straight, I am in no way associated with RIFT, and this article contains no affiliate links. Having been sent several invitations to join RIFT, I decided to do some digging to find out more before considering any investment, which we should all do.

I have used Perplexity to help gather information and Claude to put this article together. All Sources used to gather information are listed at the end of this article.

• RIFT (rift-protocol.ai) is a brand-new crypto trading platform. It promises self-custodial “Vaults,” automated trading via an “Auto Engine,” and eventually stocks, commodities, and forex.
• The site discloses no legal entity, no regulator, no audit, and no named team.
• Independent researchers describe its public promoter, Shavez Ahmed Siddiqui, as “a central figure” in HyperFund and a continuing presence in later ventures HyperOne, StableDAO, We Are All Satoshi, and Lquid Pay/Protocol Yield. Researchers and New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority have flagged these ventures for false compliance claims and Ponzi-style patterns. Siddiqui denies any connection to HyperFund or Sam Lee.
• A recruitment transcript reviewed for this piece shows RIFT growing through a referral-tiered “free licence” campaign with a founder-set deadline. That structure resembles Siddiqui’s earlier schemes.
• No regulator has named RIFT directly, and that distinction matters. It’s why this isn’t a simple “confirmed scam” verdict.
• Verdict: unproven, high-risk, unverified. Don’t deposit money until the open questions below get answered.

RIFT calls itself “Routing Intelligence Futures Trading,” and it lives at rift-protocol.ai. The site promises self-custodial trading, automated execution, and eventually access to stocks and commodities. So far, none of that is independently verified.

The platform discloses no legal entity. It names no regulator anywhere on its site, and it lists no auditor either. In short, nobody outside the company can confirm who actually runs it.

That gap matters more because of who promotes RIFT publicly. Independent researchers, along with New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority, have documented a long history tied to Shavez Ahmed Siddiqui, the figure introducing RIFT in its own promotional video. Researchers describe him as a central figure in HyperFund, and his later ventures span HyperOne, StableDAO, and Lquid Pay. Regulators have flagged several of these for false compliance claims, though Siddiqui himself denies any tie to HyperFund or Sam Lee.

A transcript reviewed for this piece adds another layer. It shows RIFT growing through a referral-based “free licence” campaign, complete with a countdown deadline. That structure closely mirrors Siddiqui’s earlier projects, which used near-identical recruitment mechanics.

Even so, no regulator has named RIFT directly, at least not yet. That single fact keeps this verdict short of “confirmed scam.” For now, readers should treat RIFT as high-risk and unverified. Don’t deposit money until the questions below get real, documented answers.

RIFT’s website describes itself as an “AI-Driven Execution Protocol for Retail Crypto, Stocks and Commodities Markets.” According to the site, RIFT offers:

• A self-custodial “Vault” for storing crypto assets
• Spot and futures trading
• An automated trading tool called the “Auto Engine,” split into three tiers: Micro Flow, Smart Flow, and Alpha Flow
• “Smart Money” copy-trading through “Mirror Wallets” and “Trading Books”
• Future access to stocks, commodities, and forex
• Headline stats of 12.8ms execution speed and 99.9% uptime

The fee structure looks simple on paper. Users pay a one-time $10 account fee, a 0.5% bridge fee, and a 0.1% trading fee. On top of that, RIFT takes a 20% performance fee on Auto Engine profits. Another 9% of that yield flows into something called the “X9 Rewards Pool.”

Importantly, every claim above comes from RIFT itself. The site names no legal entity, no registered address, and no management team. It links to Telegram, X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but none of these confirms who is legally responsible for user funds.

Anyone researching this platform will hit a wall of unrelated projects sharing the same name. That naming collision makes lazy research genuinely dangerous. Consider these look-alikes:

• Rift Finance raised $18 million from Pantera Capital and Coinbase Ventures back in 2022. It has nothing to do with rift-protocol.ai.
• Rift, covered by Blockworks, is a venture-backed bitcoin protocol led by “Samee Siddiqui” a different person entirely from Shavez Ahmed Siddiqui.
• RIFT AI is an unrelated Solana trading token tracked on crypto data sites.
• Meanwhile, RIFT LIMITED, UK company number 04088211, is a Kent-based tax consultancy with no known link to this platform.
• The IETF’s “Routing in Fat Trees (RIFT)” is a real, unrelated internet protocol standard.

None of these lends any credibility to rift-protocol.ai. Readers should treat each name match as a coincidence unless solid evidence proves otherwise.

This question sits at the heart of the legit-or-scam debate. A YouTube video titled “What is RIFT Protocol? The Future of Trading & Smart Capital Allocation” credits Shavez Ahmed Siddiqui as the person introducing the project. Online, he also goes by “Shavez Anwar.” Researchers have tracked his activity for several years.

• HyperFund: a Ponzi scheme run by Sam Lee. The SEC formally charged Lee with fraud in January 2024, and the US Department of Justice indicted him and two associates the same month over what prosecutors called a $1.89 billion scheme. Lee remains a fugitive, reportedly hiding in Dubai. BehindMLM has tracked this network since 2021. It separately describes Siddiqui as “a central figure” in HyperFund itself, a claim Siddiqui has publicly and firmly denied.
• HyperOne: Siddiqui’s next stop, where he held the title “Operation Head of Asia Pacific.”
• StableDAO: described by researchers as “HyperTech Group 2.0.” It spun off StableOpinion, VidiLook, We Are All Satoshi, and Boomerang Trade.
• We Are All Satoshi (WAAS): Siddiqui reportedly took this project over after a falling-out with Lee.
• Lquid Pay: launched after WAAS failed multiple relaunches. This crypto-debit-card product ties to Marida Limited, a company citing a Hong Kong address.

Unlike the trail above, this part carries more weight than an investigator’s opinion alone, because an official body confirmed it. New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) issued a formal warning against Lquid Pay in May 2025, later updated in January 2026. The warning states that Lquid Pay operated without complying with NZ financial law. Furthermore, it says the company’s CEO falsely claimed compliance and cited a trademark that didn’t exist.

The same warning names Protocol Yield, run by the same executive. According to the FMA, Protocol Yield falsely claimed its parent company held a Hong Kong licence. Notably, the regulator states plainly that this kind of misrepresentation is commonly associated with scam operations. Since then, IOSCO’s international alert network has logged the warning and shared it across global regulators.

BehindMLM also reported receiving a legal threat from someone identifying as Siddiqui after publishing this coverage. That letter denied any “legal, operational, or financial association” with Sam Lee or HyperFund. In turn, it called the outlet’s reporting “deliberately false, malicious and defamatory.” The outlet declined to remove its reporting.

What this proves, and doesn’t, about RIFT and Siddiqui: the FMA warning names Lquid Pay and Protocol Yield, not RIFT or Siddiqui personally. Likewise, no regulator or court filing found in this investigation ties Siddiqui to HyperFund by name. The SEC and DOJ actions named only Sam Lee, Rodney Burton, and Brenda Chunga.

Both the HyperFund-to-Siddiqui link and the Siddiqui-to-RIFT link rest on independent investigative reporting from BehindMLM and Danny de Hek, which Siddiqui disputes. That reporting stays consistent across multiple articles, but readers should treat it as a well-documented allegation rather than a proven or regulator-confirmed fact.”

RIFT’s website makes no specific licensing claim anywhere. There’s no mention of FCA authorisation, a Hong Kong licence, or US registration. Instead, RIFT leans on language like “protocol” and “self-custodial,” which implies it sits outside licensing rules altogether.

That framing doesn’t settle anything legally. Licensing requirements depend on what a platform actually does, not on what it calls itself. If RIFT controls user assets, offers trading, or manages investments, licensing rules likely apply regardless of the “protocol” label.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) keeps a public register of authorised cryptoasset firms. It specifically warns consumers to check that register before using any platform, and to avoid firms that don’t appear on it. This investigation found no FCA listing tying rift-protocol.ai to an authorised entity.

A website is one thing; a live recruitment call often reveals more. In that spirit, a transcript of an internal RIFT presentation, shared with this author, shows how the platform actually gets sold to new users. Readers should treat it as a primary source: it hasn’t been independently verified beyond internal consistency, and its own terms restrict redistribution of “official company presentations.” Still, its content is newsworthy enough to summarise carefully.

New users don’t simply sign up. Instead, they work through “100X Hyperdrive,” a set of three short videos that must play inside the Rift app itself. Watching via YouTube doesn’t count, according to the presenter. Finish all three, and users unlock one free Auto Engine licence: Micro Flow, Smart Flow, or Alpha Flow.

Notably, this offer only applies once per user. Alpha-tier holders can’t claim again, while everyone below that tier keeps qualifying for upgrades. As a result, the campaign targets people with the least already invested, a common funnel-widening tactic.

Every user gets a personal QR code and referral link. New sign-ups appear in a “back office” list, marked with colour-coded dots for each licence tier claimed. During the call, the presenter walks through this live: send the link, confirm the sign-up appears, then coach the recruit through the same three videos.

The presenter describes a 45-to-60-day window for this promotion, attributed to someone called “Chevaz”, almost certainly Shavez Siddiqui himself. That timing puts the deadline around the end of October 2026. Founder-set deadlines like this create urgency, yet they carry no binding commitment.

Buried casually in the pitch: a $10 account fee and a $1 bridging fee eat into deposits before anything earns yield. The suggested minimum deposit is $50, leaving roughly $39–40 actually working. Because licences run for 365 days regardless of funding, the coaching pushes users to deposit small amounts immediately rather than wait for real capital.

Reinvestment gets framed as inevitable growth, with the presenter suggesting success will eventually “hit” if users stay patient. That claim sits oddly next to the presentation’s own disclaimer, which states plainly that targeted profits are “not guaranteed.”

The session closes with a direct push: text friends, family, and coworkers, framed explicitly as a “team build.” Taken together, these mechanics referral tiers, downline tracking, urgency deadlines, and reinvestment scripts closely match patterns researchers documented in Siddiqui’s earlier ventures.

Legitimate operators should answer these questions clearly. So far, RIFT hasn’t at least not on its own site:

1. Legal entity — What’s the full legal name, jurisdiction, and registered address behind RIFT?
2. Domain ownership — Who controls rift-protocol.ai and the linked web app?
3. Management — Who runs RIFT, and what’s their documented connection to Siddiqui, Sam Lee, or Marida Limited?
4. Regulatory basis — What licence or exemption allows RIFT to offer trading services to retail users?
5. Custody mechanics — Is the Vault genuinely non-custodial, or can RIFT freeze or redirect funds?
6. Audits — Has any code been independently audited, and is that report public?
7. Performance claims — Are the 12.8ms speed and 99.9% uptime figures verifiable, or just marketing copy?
8. Withdrawals — Can users withdraw profit and principal without extra “unlocking” fees? This remains the most reliable practical scam test available.
9. Recruitment structure — Does growth come from trading performance, or from referral incentives and countdown deadlines?

This isn’t a final judgment, and it shouldn’t be read as one. Several things would strengthen RIFT’s credibility: a verifiable legal entity, a real licence checkable on an official register, a published audit, and evidence that users can withdraw funds without friction.

Conversely, any new reporting tying RIFT directly to Lquid Pay or Protocol Yield rather than just through its promoter would strengthen the case against it.

RIFT presents itself as an AI-assisted trading platform, but available evidence doesn’t establish that it’s a regulated or independently verified business. Its promotional material features Shavez Ahmed Siddiqui, whose earlier ventures including Lquid Pay and Protocol Yield drew a formal warning from New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority for false compliance claims. His prior projects, including HyperFund and We Are All Satoshi, have been extensively documented as Ponzi-pattern schemes. None of this proves RIFT is fraudulent on its own, and no regulator has named RIFT specifically. Still, RIFT hasn’t published the corporate or technical information needed to resolve these concerns. Treat it as high-risk and unverified, and don’t deposit funds you can’t afford to lose.

• RIFT Protocol website — rift-protocol.ai
• New Zealand FMA warning on Lquid Finance T/A Lquid Pay — fma.govt.nz
• IOSCO I-SCAN alert on Lquid Finance T/A Lquid Pay — iosco.org/i-scan
• BehindMLM — “Lquid Finance (LquidPay) fraud warning from New Zealand” — behindmlm.com
• BehindMLM — “Lquid Finance & LquidPay fraud warning from Australia” (documents the “central figure” characterisation and Siddiqui’s denial letter) — behindmlm.com
• BehindMLM — “Shavez Anwar takes down DeHek, threatens Bloomberg & BehindMLM” (publishes Siddiqui’s legal threat in full) — behindmlm.com
• Danny de Hek — RIFT Protocol investigations (referenced by BehindMLM and via direct research) — dehek.com
• UK Companies House — RIFT LIMITED, company no. 04088211 — find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
• US Securities and Exchange Commission — press release charging Sam Lee and Brenda Chunga over HyperFund — sec.gov
• US Department of Justice — HyperFund and Associated Cases (criminal docket page) — justice.gov
• FCA cryptoasset firm guidance — fca.org.uk/firms/cryptoassets-information
• CoinDesk — Rift Finance $18M raise (unrelated project) — coindesk.com
• Blockworks — coverage of the unrelated venture-backed “Rift” bitcoin cross-chain protocol — blockworks.co
• Transcript of an internal “100X Hyperdrive” RIFT community presentation, provided directly to the author (primary source; authenticity not independently verified beyond internal consistency; corroborate before quoting at length)

This article distinguishes between verified facts, company self-claims, and third-party allegations. Where a claim comes from an investigator or a regulator rather than a court finding, that distinction is preserved. Readers should independently verify any claim before making financial decisions, and should treat this as journalism/research, not financial or legal advice.

Please let me know in the comments if you have invested in RIFT and what your experience has been. And comment if you decided not to invest and why. At this stage, I have not.