Ryvyl history: payments, disputed blockchain claims and the merger into RTB Digital
Ryvyl’s story ends with a different company name and a different primary business. The payment processor once known as GreenBox POS sold its European operation in 2025, agreed to merge with digital-media software company RTB Digital, and completed that transaction in May 2026. The listed corporation then became RTB Digital, Inc., doing business as Roundtable, and its Nasdaq ticker changed from RVYL to RTB.
That ending matters because Ryvyl should no longer be described as a current standalone public company. Its history is also more complicated than the “blockchain payments” language used in earlier filings. In April 2026, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled enforcement action alleging that Ryvyl and two founders had made false disclosures about proprietary blockchain technology and had not disclosed the importance of high-risk merchants until 2025.
Two beginnings: a public shell and a payments operation
The legal entity’s history reaches back to 2007, when it was incorporated in Nevada under an earlier name. The operating business that later defined the company was much younger. Founders Fredi Nisan and Benzion Errez developed GreenBox POS as a payments venture in 2017, and the public company subsequently acquired the GreenBox operations.
This distinction explains why different dates appear in summaries of the company. The 2007 date belongs to the listed corporate vehicle; 2017 marks the start of the fintech operation readers generally associate with GreenBox and Ryvyl. Treating either date as the whole story hides how the business reached the public market.
GreenBox positioned itself as a technology provider for merchant payment acceptance, settlement and disbursement. Its services included card and ACH processing, merchant accounts, digital payment tools and processing infrastructure supplied through partners. In 2021, its shares moved to Nasdaq under the symbol GBOX, giving the small payments company access to a national exchange and a broader investor audience.
Growth through payments acquisitions
GreenBox used acquisitions to expand its geographic reach and payment capabilities. Its purchases included ChargeSavvy, a US payment-processing business, and Transact Europe, a Bulgarian electronic-money institution that gave the group regulated European infrastructure. It also acquired merchant portfolios and processing operations that increased payment volume.
The company promoted products such as its Coyni digital-payment platform and described blockchain as an important part of its technology. For customers, however, the practical service was familiar: businesses needed to accept cards or bank payments, move funds and reconcile transactions. That placed GreenBox in the wider merchant-payments market alongside large consumer and business platforms such as PayPal Complete Payments, although GreenBox operated at a far smaller scale and served a different merchant mix.
In October 2022, GreenBox POS changed its name to RYVYL Inc. and adopted the Nasdaq ticker RVYL. The rebrand was meant to present a broader financial-technology identity, but it did not change the core importance of transaction processing, bank and card-network relationships, compliance controls and merchant risk.
The blockchain claims became an enforcement issue
Any account of Ryvyl’s history must distinguish the company’s earlier claims from what regulators later alleged. On 27 April 2026, the SEC filed a civil complaint against Ryvyl, former chief executive Fredi Nisan and former chairman Benzion Errez.
According to the SEC, public filings beginning in October 2020 falsely portrayed the company as the developer and seller of innovative blockchain-based payment solutions. The complaint alleged that Ryvyl’s actual business resold card and ACH processing supplied by other companies, that it did not process transactions through blockchain technology as claimed, and that it did not possess the proprietary blockchain technology described in its filings. The SEC also alleged that the company failed until May 2025 to disclose that a substantial majority of its transactions involved high-risk merchants, including cannabis dispensaries.
Ryvyl, Nisan and Errez consented to final judgments without admitting or denying the allegations, subject to court approval. The proposed resolution permanently enjoined the defendants from violating specified antifraud provisions. The company did not face a monetary penalty under the settlement; Nisan and Errez agreed to civil penalties and five-year public-company officer-and-director bars.
This was not a technical footnote. It directly challenged the narrative that had differentiated the company in the market. A payments business can still provide merchant value without blockchain, but investors and customers need an accurate description of who owns the technology, which systems actually settle transactions and where the business depends on third-party processors.
Why Ryvyl sold its European business
By early 2025, Ryvyl was under financial pressure and sought to sell Ryvyl EU, the operation built around Transact Europe. The transaction valued the European subsidiary at $15 million. After a complicated closing process, the sale was completed on 1 June 2025.
The disposal removed substantially all of the business that Ryvyl had reported as its International segment. From that point, management treated the remaining payment operation as a single segment focused mainly on North America. The sale brought in capital, but it also reduced Ryvyl’s scale and geographic diversity.
Nasdaq compliance became another concern. In April 2025, the exchange notified Ryvyl that it did not meet the $2.5 million minimum stockholders’ equity requirement. The company later reported regaining compliance after raising capital. It also received a separate minimum-bid-price notice in June 2025. These were visible signs that the strategic change was occurring under balance-sheet and market pressure, not simply as an optional portfolio adjustment.
The turn from payments to Roundtable
On 28 September 2025, Ryvyl signed a merger agreement with privately held RTB Digital, whose Roundtable platform provides digital-media publishing, community, distribution and monetisation software. The structure called for a Ryvyl subsidiary to merge into RTB Digital, leaving RTB as a wholly owned subsidiary of the listed corporation. The agreement stated that RTB’s operation would become the combined company’s primary business, while Ryvyl’s existing operation would continue.
Fredi Nisan retired as chief executive at the end of October 2025, and chief financial officer George Oliva became interim CEO. Shareholders approved the RTB transaction on 1 April 2026.
The merger closed on 12 May 2026. At completion, Ryvyl Inc. changed its corporate name to RTB Digital, Inc. and began doing business as Roundtable. The following day, its Nasdaq ticker changed from RVYL to RTB. In other words, Ryvyl’s public-company chapter ended: the surviving listed issuer carried a new name, ticker and primary digital-media strategy.
Key milestones
- 2007: the Nevada public-company entity is incorporated under an earlier name.
- 2017: the GreenBox POS payments operation is founded.
- 2021: GreenBox moves to Nasdaq under GBOX and expands through payments acquisitions.
- 2022: GreenBox POS becomes RYVYL Inc.; the ticker changes to RVYL.
- June 2025: Ryvyl completes the sale of its European subsidiary, narrowing the business to one operating segment.
- September 2025: Ryvyl signs its merger agreement with RTB Digital.
- April 2026: shareholders approve the merger; the SEC files its settled disclosure case later that month.
- May 2026: the merger closes, the company becomes RTB Digital and the Nasdaq ticker changes to RTB.
What remains of the Ryvyl story
Ryvyl’s history is a caution against confusing a technology label with verified infrastructure. Merchant payments depend on underwriting, fraud management, sponsor banks, card networks, transaction monitoring and reliable settlement. Those operating relationships can be commercially valuable, but they are different from owning a proprietary blockchain settlement engine.
The story also shows how quickly a small listed technology company can change shape. Ryvyl went from an acquisition-led international payments group to a North America-focused processor, then became part of a public company whose primary business was digital-media software. The most accurate description as of September 2026 is therefore historical: Ryvyl was a fintech and payments company that became RTB Digital after the Roundtable merger.
