Cannes, France – RTB Digital, Inc. (“Roundtable”) (NASDAQ: RTB), the world’s only AI/DeFi-powered enterprise media platform, was unveiled to the professional media industry at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, backed by its newly announced partnership and integration with Coinbase, which  enables USDC-based payments and real-time reporting for participating publishers.

“This partnership represents what we believe to be the single most powerful asset available, to restore bona fide, human-driven, professional journalism,” announced RTB CEO, James Heckman. “Our breakthrough technology was created by the inventor and patent holder of Decentralized Finance technology (DeFi), Co-founder Eyal Hertzog. His contribution to financial freedom enables people to transact anytime, anywhere, without dependence on any intermediaries and now that breakthrough is extended to journalism worldwide.”

Roundtable co-founders Hertzog and Heckman are responsible for creating some of the world’s most transformative financial and media platforms, including DeFi, social media blogging and social video (Rivals and Metacafe) and the premium advertising marketplace. After five years of R&D, their new platform enables publishers to convert platform-verified media revenue into instant liquidity through a smart-wallet network, “Media Liquidity Pool” and Coinbase Prime integration using USDC.

Speaking with TheStreet Roundtable, Coinbase head of institutional strategy, John D’Agostino, noted that the platform addresses one of the media industry’s biggest structural challenges: cash flow.

“What really got me was when you showed me that dashboard for an independent journalist, who was using your technology and stablecoins through Coinbase to change cash flow from months to minutes,” said D’Agostino. “Cash flow is the most important element of any business, and waiting 90 days to get paid, that’s untenable. So the idea that we can use blockchain technology and USDC to increase the probability those people with talent can build those businesses, the world will be in a decidedly better place. A phenomenal use case. That’s the kind of stuff we want to be alongside.”

Hertzog said the platform delivers a practical breakthrough for publishers and journalists operating anywhere in the world. “No matter where you are in the world, no matter what you report, if people find it interesting, you can get paid instantly and fairly, no matter what,” said Hertzog. “We’ve built a decentralized technology that can measure your revenue and advance the money you need. I think that’s a game changer in the media business.”

Roundtable (NASDAQ: RTB) is the AI/DeFi-powered Enterprise Media Platform built for the professional media industry, including distribution, publishing, monetization, data, and syndication operations - and now brings instant payments and stablecoin settlement, integrated with Coinbase. 

Roundtable’s Media Liquidity Pool and smart-wallet network connects each publisher to a dedicated Coinbase account, automatically settling earned revenue as USDC and recording every transaction Onchain. The new platform is the industry’s first real-time, immutable-reporting and payment infrastructure built specifically for professional media.

With the Coinbase integration live and fully leveraging Coinbase Prime, Roundtable says its platform is operational end to end, giving professional media companies a full-stack operating system for creating, distributing, monetizing, reporting and settling revenue in real time.  

“Our new platform can help journalists who are not bankable in Africa, during war, or in developing countries around the world” - or just want to remain independent, but can’t afford to do so,” said Heckman. “They can now be paid anytime, anywhere, and spend those dollars instantly after creating a story that is consumed."

CEO Heckman also confirmed Roundtable’s pre-Nasdaq-listing plans to “lock-up” ~85% of the cap table - which has now been agreed and signed by all founders, and major investors. RTB has approximately ~13.5 common shares issued and outstanding, leaving a public float of ~2 million shares (~15%). The lock up on major shareholders is one year, with remaining shares released slowly over 12 months.

Disclosure: Reporters of this article, although employed by TheStreet, are also compensated by and partnered with Roundtable, to cover Crypto content - and in this case, are the subject of the story. Roundtable and its affiliates have a direct financial interest in the securities of the company discussed. This communication should not be construed as investment advice.