Ring Financial Side.xyz Hub.xyz

Unity Project logo
Ring Financial logo
Dubai Ape Club logo
Side.xyz logo
Hub.xyz logo

The truth behind Hub.xyz.

Armin Kiani. One identity. One method. Countless victims. You can steal money. You cannot steal the truth.

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Ring Financial started life as Stalintoken ( stalintoken.com ), later rebranded as ring.financial, promising high-yield farming and node staking with extremely high APYs. This project launched through the Unity Project software and launched a token with a 99% controlled supply, and a 1% liquidity pool.

This project is considered as a Financial crime for his massive and premeditated dump that caused the loss of millions of dollars.

Landing Page Snapshot

Ring Financial website preview
December 24, 2021

About the project

These pieces of evidence reveal a clear pattern of negligence. They can be traced and correlated to reconstruct the full history of the project. Ring Financial was presented as a template of the Unity project, created by Tugan Bara, who acted as a financial advisor.

Tugan recruited members from his own community who were fully aware of their actions to create, distribute, and market Ring. These people were motivated purely by financial gain. They were willing to steal from thousands of people without hesitation.

Later we will examine who they are and exactly how they spent the money. Ring Financial ended in disaster. Tens of millions were stolen. Buyers were left with nothing. This was a nine-figures scam, run by an organized team that remains untouchable and active today.

Ring Financial website preview
Ring Financial Website - December 27, 2021
Nicolas
The owner of the Git repository
Ring Financial Hosting Provider
OVHCloud: the hosting provider
Unity Project website preview
Unity Project - unityproject.co ( view on web archive ↗ )

Blockchain analysis

The RING token has been minted on November 04, 2021 at 01:14:26 PM UTC, alongside its Pancakeswap liquidity pool ( view on bscscan ↗ ). A total of 20,456,743 RING tokens were minted, and 19,456,743 RING tokens were instantly burned at the time of token creation, leaving 1,000,000 circulating tokens. 10,000 tokens (1%) were added to the liquidity pool, along with 17.88 BNB ($10,003.86) ( view on bscscan ↗ ). The remaining 99% of the supply was split into 6 team wallets. These wallets have been continuously selling millions of dollars' worth of tokens.

If a token meets these conditions, it can be classified as a financial crime:

- Deceiving Investors: Artificially inflating the token price to sell at a higher value constitutes clear fraud.
- Control of Majority Tokens: Holding a significant portion of the tokens allows market manipulation and liquidity distortion.
- Registration with Regulators: If the token is considered an investment, it must be registered with the appropriate financial authorities and comply with securities regulations.
- Deception and Lack of Transparency: Concealing crucial information, such as transaction fees or token distribution, is fraud and deceives investors.
- Violation of Financial Laws: A combination of these practices—price manipulation and lack of transparency—directly violates financial laws.
- U.S. Legislation: U.S. law is particularly harsh on financial fraud, with prison sentences potentially applied if American buyers are involved.

More to come...

Links

From Ring Financial to Side.xyz

The team that ran Ring Financial decided to try again, creating Side.xyz.

Ring Financial logo

Ring Financial

Darius

Side.xyz logo
Zoroastra pfp

Side.xyz

Zoroastra

The founders are Tugan (again) and Zoroastra.

Landing Page Snapshot

Side.xyz website preview
December 14, 2023
Side.xyz team
The team building Side.xyz after Ring Financial collapsed.
Zoroastra Opensea account
The Opensea's profile of Zoroastra ( view on opensea ↗ ) and his PFP NFT ↗

Project's vision

Side.xyz website preview
December 8, 2022 ( view on web archive ↗ )
Side.xyz website preview
May 1, 2023 ( view on web archive ↗ )

Zastra.eth

Following the breadcrumbs, the image shows the founder: Zastra.eth, building Side.xyz and DubaiApeYC, an exclusive APE club in Dubai. We will come back to this later.

Zastra.eth Twitter
Zastra.eth Twitter
Side.xyz website preview
December 5, 2023
Text
Founders of Side in the landing page

Links

From Side.xyz to Hub.xyz

Let's start with the archives. It appears that Hub.xyz and Side.xyz share the same technology, the same website structure, the same service, and the same person in charge: Zastra, also known as Zoroastra or Zastra.eth. This name appears on Hub, on Side, and as you will later see, on Ring. This claim is supported by direct evidence linking both projects. Side.xyz redirects to Hub.xyz. Hub.xyz redirects to Side.xyz.

Side attempted to launch new tokens, then pivoted to a tech allowing users to build mini-sites for social media bios. Today, Side.xyz is something else entirely: an AI agent. Don't worry, it will probably become something else tomorrow. Now, take a look at these two sites. On the left, Side.

Side.xyz website preview
Side.xyz - December 14, 2023 ( view on web archive ↗ )
Hub.xyz website preview
Hub.xyz - May 31, 2024 ( view on web archive ↗ )
Side.yxz to Hub.xyz redirection
December 14, 2023
Side.yxz to Hub.xyz redirection
November 8, 2023 ( view on X ↗ )

Zeroastra is clearly identified as Armin Kiani

This brings us to Hub, the “child” of Side, and the “grandchild” of Ring.

Side.xyz logo
Zoroastra pfp

Side.xyz

Zoroastra

Hub.xyz logo
Zastra pfp

Hub.xyz

Zastra

Landing Page Snapshot

Hub.xyz website preview
June 15, 2024

Hub.xyz's founders

We observe the same usernames and first names on both projects (Side.xyz and Hub.xyz). On the left, for Side.xyz, we see Zoroastra and Tim Sprecher. On the right, for Hub.xyz, we see Armin (Zastra) and Tim.

Hub.xyz website preview
Armin and Tim on the Side.xyz's landing page
Swissborg website preview
Armin and Tim on Swissborg's website page

Project's evolution

Now let's observe the evolution of the Hub website over the years:
1. Unleash your Web3 Hub
2. Global Matching Protocol for creators and advertisers
3. The programmable bandwidth Super Network
4. MultiModal Data Infrastructure

Evolution of Hub.xyz's vision
Evolution of Hub.xyz's vision over the years

What kind of business changes its product and its promise four times in two years? Are we facing a company that sells narratives designed to create buzz?

Pivoting four times in two years reveals something simple. Hub is not here to build a business. Hub is here to make as much noise as possible, attract as many people as possible to its token, and repeat the same story.

There is one consequence when you try to build something bigger, when ambition becomes greed. You must expose yourself more. You must appear in public. You must speak. You must take photos. And this is where things begin to show.

Greed is a deadly sin.

KOL and fundraising: The future victims

Let's look at the Swissborg site. Hub raised money from their community. Maybe that community wants to know more about the founders of Hub. Maybe they would like more details on the source of the funds and the risks involved. ( view on X ↗ )

The same question applies to the KOLs who invested in their token ( view on X ↗ ). They might want to know where Armin and Tim come from and what risks are tied to their personal image. ( view on X ↗ )

The same applies to the Q42 community. ( view on X ↗ )

All of these people, potential victims, need to know the truth so they can make informed decisions.

On Swissborg's site, we see Armin Zastra and Tim Sprecher listed as founders of Hub. ( view on Swissborg ↗ )

It is difficult to find Armin's last name. Zastra. Zoroastra. Zastra.eth. Why never reveal a family name? Why so much discretion?

Did Swissborg, Kols, Q42 fail in their due diligence? Was it negligence? Or favoritism? They owe a clear and public explanation.

Links

Dubai Ape Club is a private club for BAYC/MAYC holders in Dubai.

Dubai Ape Club X Banner
X Banner
Dubai Ape Club Members
Another picture

About the project

This club is an example of how the money stolen on Ring Financial has been spent: Private Yacht Party, Luxury Villas events...

Dubai Ape Club X Banner

Dubai Ape Club Members
This is Armin, also known as Zastra, in the center, founder of the DubaiApeClub. On the left, we can see Tim and his tattoo. The irony is connecting on-chain events to real life.

Links

Tim Sprecher

Tim Sprecher

A short note about Tim. He is also present on LinkedIn. He changed roles multiple times inside Hub. Nothing makes sense. A partner manager does not become co-founder and CEO overnight. The attempt to hide the truth is obvious.

Tim Sprecher
LinkedIn ↗
Tim Sprecher
LinkedIn ↗
Tim Sprecher
Swissborg ↗

Tim's apparitions

Tim has been present everywhere on Armin's journey. He is identifiable with his left arm's tattoo.

Tim Sprecher
Tim overview
Armin Kiani

Armin Kiani

Armin Kiani, Armin Zastra, Armin K., Zastra.eth, Zastra (Armin), Zoroastra.

Armin Kiani
LinkedIn ↗
Armin Kiani
LinkedIn ↗
Armin Kiani
Luma ↗

Audio

These 2 audios has been respectively recorded on a public AMA hosted by Ring Financial in 2021 and on a public X space hosted by Hub.xyz in 2026. The speaker is identified as the same person: Armin Kiani.

Ring Financial AMA

Darius ·

Youtube AMA ↗
Zastra pfp

Hub.xyz X Space

@zastrahub ·

X Space ↗
Resemblyzer logo

Voice similarity

Resemblyzer ↗
93%

Very high similarity between the two compared audio sources.

Resemblyzer's results
Resemblyzer's results

Project chain

These projects are connected as part of a continuous exploration, where each initiative builds upon the previous one.

Ring Financial logo

Ring Financial

Darius

Side.xyz logo
Zoroastra pfp

Side.xyz

Zoroastra

Hub.xyz logo
Zastra pfp

Hub.xyz

Zastra

Armin Kiani

Armin Kiani

Founder

Armin Kiani's journey
The overview