---
title: "SMBX Review"
url: https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/smbx
kind: platform-review
updated: 2026-09-16
description: "Is SMBX legit? 271 Reg CF small business bonds reviewed: 6% to 11.5% coupons, $21.8M funded, 63 repaid, 53 auctions missing from its dashboard, no investor fee, none sold since April 2026."
publisher: AltStreet (https://altstreet.investments)
license: Public factual pages may be read, quoted and cited with attribution and a link. Bulk redistribution is not permitted.
---

# SMBX Review

AltStreet reconstructed SMBX's SEC Form C record (271 offerings by 250 small businesses since 2019) and captured the platform's own market dashboard, which shows every listed bond's amount raised, investor count and monthly repayment progress: 211 funded bonds, $21.84 million, 63 repaid in full and 148 repaying, 147 of them within one payment of schedule. Three things the marketplace does not put together for you: 53 of the 275 numbered auction slots are absent from that dashboard, and AltStreet could recover archived listings for 48 of them (34 SEC-filed offerings) but not their outcomes; among issuers whose bond is confirmed funded and old enough to owe the SEC an annual report, 89 of 106 have filed neither a report nor a termination; and no bond has closed on SMBX since April 2026.

AltStreet score: 47.9 (C+), scored September 16, 2026. Method: https://altstreet.investments/platforms

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Platform | SMBX |
| What it is | Regulation Crowdfunding Small-Business Bond Marketplace |
| Asset class | Small-Business Bonds (Restaurants, Food & Beverage, Retail, Services) |
| Website | thesmbx.com |
| Review first published | September 16, 2026 |
| Last updated | September 16, 2026 |
| AltStreet relationship | None: no affiliate, sponsorship or partnership |

## The short version

SMBX has intermediated 271 Regulation Crowdfunding bond offerings by 250 small businesses since August 2019, all $10-unit fixed-rate amortizing debt. Its public dashboard shows 211 funded bonds raising $21.84 million from 25,510 investor allocations (median raise $73,330), 63 repaid in full, 148 repaying with 147 within one payment of schedule, and 11 failed. Coupons rose from a 7.5% median in 2021 and 2022 to 11.25% in 2025; terms are mostly 36 or 60 months; 12 bonds are secured. What the marketplace does not assemble for you: 53 of 275 auction numbers are absent from the dashboard, and archived listings recover 48 of them but not their outcomes; 89 of 106 confirmed-funded older issuers filed neither an annual report nor a termination, and only six progress updates exist across 271 offerings; the issuer fee is stated three different ways and the recurring fee two ways; and no bond has funded since April 2026, with no statement from the company about its plans.

- **$21.84M / 211 bonds** Funded auctions on the SMBX dashboard, 2019 to April 2026, from 25,510 investor allocations averaging $856. By close year: $5.27M in 2022, $3.72M in 2023, $4.64M in 2024, $5.79M in 2025, $0.34M in 2026.
- **63 matured, 148 repaying** All 63 matured bonds show every scheduled payment made ($4.05M of principal; 22 prepaid). Of 148 repaying, 147 are within one monthly payment of schedule on AltStreet's heuristic; one is two behind. The endpoint has no default field.
- **53 missing** Auction numbers run 1 to 275 but the dashboard returns 222. Archived listings account for 48 of the absent numbers (34 SEC-filed offerings, two withdrawals, three issuers that later terminated reporting), but the archived pages hold no offering data, so their outcomes cannot be reconstructed and the site does not address them.
- **89 of 106** Confirmed-funded issuers with a Form C before April 2025 that filed neither an annual report nor a termination (17 filed a C-AR, 12 of them later terminating). Across all 206 older non-withdrawn issuers examined, 180 filed neither, a filing gap rather than 180 proven violations since a close could not be confirmed for every unmatched issuer. Six progress updates exist across 271 offerings, so amounts raised live only on the platform.
- **0% / up to 6%** Investor fee by ACH (4% by card) and the issuer capital-raise fee, plus $50 a month ($25 for pre-July-2024 bonds) while a bond is outstanding. Fee statements differ across the agreement, the CFPORTAL filing, the prospectuses and the educational materials.

Data note: AltStreet SEC Form C census of the SMBX portal CIK 0001707214 (271 offerings, 250 issuers, 2019 to 2026) with all issuer lifecycle filings; SMBX market dashboard API capture of 222 auctions; three prospectuses, the Agreements and Disclosures, educational materials and site, all captured 2026-09-16.


## Key figures

| Figure | What it is | Context |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 53 of 275 | Auction numbers absent from the public dashboard | Archived listings recover 48 of them (34 SEC-filed) but not their outcomes; the repayment record covers the 222 returned |
| 89 of 106 | Confirmed-funded older issuers that filed neither a Reg CF annual report nor a termination | 180 of 206 across all older non-withdrawn issuers examined; plus six Form C-U progress updates across 271 offerings |
| $0.34M in 2026 | Funded in 2026 through April, against $5.79M in 2025; no live offering on September 16, 2026 | Last Form C April 6, 2026 (failed); the company has not stated its plans |
| 63 / 148 | Bonds repaid in full / bonds repaying, of 211 funded since 2019 | 147 of the 148 within one monthly payment of schedule on AltStreet's heuristic; $21.84M raised in total |


## Verdict

SMBX is the cleanest retail small-business debt instrument AltStreet has reviewed: $10 bonds, fixed coupons, monthly amortization from month one, a prospectus with real financials, no investor fee by bank transfer, and a dashboard that shows repayment progress on every listed bond. The bonds it still lists are almost all paying. The reservations are about the edges of that picture: 53 auction numbers absent from the dashboard whose outcomes cannot be reconstructed, an issuer base that overwhelmingly skips its SEC annual-report obligation, fee terms that vary by document, and a platform that has funded nothing since April 2026 and has not said whether it will again. For existing bondholders the question is servicing continuity; for new investors there is, at the moment, nothing to buy.

**Best for**

- Existing SMBX bondholders who want to understand what the dashboard does and does not tell them
- Community lenders who want $10-unit exposure to named local businesses with monthly cash back, if offerings resume
- Investors who will read the Bond Prospectus financials and debt schedule and treat the coupon as the price of an unsecured small-business loan
- Anyone comparing Reg CF debt portals on fees: SMBX's zero investor fee by ACH is the structural contrast with Honeycomb's 3%

**Look elsewhere if**

- You need liquidity: there is no secondary market, ordinary resale is unavailable, and terms run to 120 months
- You require a published default and recovery history: the dashboard shows the bonds it returns, not losses, and 53 auction numbers are absent with outcomes that cannot be reconstructed
- You would rely on ongoing issuer disclosure: 84% of confirmed-funded older issuers filed no annual report
- You want to invest today: no offerings were live on September 16, 2026

**Strengths**

- Transparent instrument: $10 units, fixed rate, fixed term, monthly principal and interest, a public prospectus with two years of financials and the issuer's other debts
- Zero investor fee by ACH, unlike the closest comparable portal
- Per-bond repayment visibility on every listed auction, with 63 bonds repaid in full and 147 of 148 repaying within one payment of schedule
- SEC-registered, FINRA-member funding portal with clean CFPORTAL disclosures and no located enforcement history; escrow at unaffiliated third parties

**Limitations**

- 53 of 275 auction numbers are absent from the dashboard with no explanation, and no delinquency or default field is published
- Issuer compliance: 89 of 106 confirmed-funded older issuers filed neither an annual report nor a termination (180 of 206 across the wider population examined); six progress updates across 271 offerings
- Issuer fees stated as up to 6%, 4.5% and 0% across live documents; the current agreement carries a $50 monthly processing fee for offerings from July 2024 and $25 for earlier ones, against the $100 annual fee the educational materials still describe
- No bond has funded since April 2026; the company has not disclosed its plans, and no backup-servicing arrangement is described


## What this means for your decision.

| Topic | Finding |
| --- | --- |
|  | The visible repayment record is clean; 53 auction numbers are absent from it |
|  | Investors pay nothing to invest by bank transfer, and issuers pay up to 6% |
|  | Most SMBX issuers never filed the annual report Regulation Crowdfunding requires |
|  | Originations have stopped, and the platform has not said why |

SMBX built the most legible retail small-business bond product AltStreet has reviewed: $10 units, fixed 6% to 11.5% coupons, monthly amortization, a public prospectus with the issuer's financials and debt schedule, no investor fee by ACH, and a dashboard that shows every listed bond's repayment progress. Across 211 funded bonds and $21.84 million since 2019, the bonds still listed are almost all paying on time and 63 have repaid in full. The reservations are about what is not shown: 53 auction numbers absent from the dashboard with outcomes that cannot be reconstructed, an 84% rate of confirmed-funded older issuers skipping their required annual reports, fee terms stated three ways, and a marketplace that has funded nothing since April 2026 without saying whether it intends to again. A well-designed instrument on a platform whose next chapter is unwritten.


## Who it fits

| Investor | Fit | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Existing SMBX Bondholders | well-suited |  |
| Community Lenders Placing $10 to $500 per Business | neutral |  |
| Non-Accredited Yield Seekers Building a Diversified Note Book | neutral |  |
| Yield-Focused Investors Comparing on Headline Rate | poor-fit |  |
| Investors Requiring Liquidity or a Published Loss History | poor-fit |  |
| Investors Using Retirement Accounts | poor-fit |  |


## Questions

**What is SMBX and how do Small Business Bonds work?**

SMBX is a Regulation Crowdfunding funding portal, registered with the SEC (File No. 007-00129) and a FINRA member, where small businesses sell bonds to the public in $10 units. Each bond pays a fixed rate, 6% to 11.5% across the 211 bonds funded since 2019, over a fixed term, usually 36 or 60 months, with principal and interest paid monthly starting one month after issuance. Orders sit in escrow at North Capital Private Securities until the auction clears its minimum; repayments are collected by SMBX and held for you at Thread Bank until you withdraw. Interest is reported on a 1099-INT. Anyone with a US bank account can invest, subject to Reg CF's annual limits for non-accredited investors.

**Is SMBX legit, and has it been in trouble with regulators?**

SMBX, Inc. (formerly Peerhood, LLC) has been an SEC-registered funding portal since November 2018 and appears on FINRA's funding-portal roster with no termination as of August 2026. Its registration filings answer every disciplinary question in the negative, and AltStreet's September 2026 legal scan found no FINRA, SEC, state or court action against the company (PACER and state dockets were not searched). The concerns in this review are about disclosure and status rather than misconduct: 53 auctions are missing from the platform's dashboard without explanation, most issuers do not file their required annual reports, and no bond has funded since April 2026.

**Has SMBX had any defaults?**

Not that the platform shows. Its public dashboard lists 222 auctions; all 63 matured bonds show every scheduled payment made, and of 148 bonds still repaying, 147 are within one monthly payment of schedule on AltStreet's comparison of payments made with months elapsed. But the dashboard has no default, delinquency or charge-off field, and 53 of the 275 numbered auctions are not shown at all, with nothing on the site explaining why. Archived auction URLs name most of the missing listings, and 34 of them were SEC-filed offerings, but the archived pages hold no offering data, so their outcomes cannot be read. The CEO told the San Francisco Standard in July 2022 that SMBX had no defaults yet but that one was 'only a matter of time'. Until SMBX explains the absent auction numbers, the visible record is a record of the bonds it returns.

**What fees does SMBX charge?**

Investors pay nothing to invest by bank transfer and a non-refundable 4% surcharge by credit card; withdrawals are free from $10. Businesses pay SMBX a capital-raise fee of up to 6% of the amount raised, disclosed in each Bond Prospectus (4.5% on one AltStreet read; 0% on pandemic-era program offerings), plus, under the current agreement, a monthly payment-processing fee of $50 on offerings launched from July 1, 2024 and $25 on older ones for as long as the bond is outstanding. The platform's documents state the issuer fee inconsistently (up to 6%, 4.5%, or a $100 annual maintenance fee in the educational materials), so the prospectus for a specific offering is the reliable source.

**Are SMBX bonds secured?**

Mostly not. Twelve of the 222 listed bonds are marked secured, meaning backed by equipment, inventory, property or sometimes cash that SMBX would work to sell in a default. The other 210 are unsecured obligations of the business, and many prospectuses show senior lenders ahead of the bonds, such as bank notes, SBA or EIDL loans, or landlord and investor notes. The prospectus for each offering lists the collateral, if any, and the issuer's existing debts.

**Can I sell SMBX bonds before they mature?**

Not on any market. SMBX states that bonds cannot be resold or transferred, and no venue exists to trade them; the agreement allows limited transfers to family members or accredited investors on request, as Regulation Crowdfunding's transfer exceptions permit, but in practice you hold to maturity. The mitigating feature is monthly amortization: principal starts coming back with the first payment, so a 36-month bond returns roughly a third of principal within a year. Issuers may also prepay, and 22 of the 63 matured bonds did.

**Is SMBX still operating?**

Its registrations are current, its site and dashboard are live, and repayments on existing bonds continue to be serviced. But no bond has funded since April 2026, its last Form C (April 6, 2026) was for an offering that failed, a August 2026 filing reports another unsuccessful close, the marketplace showed no live offering on September 16, 2026, and the company's newest blog post is the 2024 wrap-up. SMBX has not published any statement about pausing, pivoting or winding down. Existing holders should keep their own records and ask the company about servicing continuity.

**What returns can I expect from SMBX bonds?**

The coupon is fixed and paid monthly: 6% to 11.5% across the funded book, with a median of 10.5% overall and 11.25% on bonds closed in 2025. Because the bonds amortize, total interest over the life of a 36-month bond at 11% is roughly 17% of the principal invested, not 33%. Those are contractual rates on unsecured small-business debt; the platform publishes no default or loss statistics, so realized returns net of losses cannot be stated. Interest is taxed as ordinary income.

**How does SMBX compare to Honeycomb Credit?**

Both are Reg CF portals for small-business debt. SMBX sells $10 bonds that amortize monthly, charges investors nothing by bank transfer, and shows repayment progress on every listed bond; it has no offerings live in September 2026 and 53 auction numbers absent from its dashboard with unknown outcomes. Honeycomb offers loans at roughly $100 with mostly quarterly repayment, discloses collateral and lien position in more detail, has a live pipeline of more than 100 campaigns, charges investors 3% by ACH, and publishes no per-loan repayment data at all. Groundfloor, in real estate debt, remains the retail benchmark for published loan-level performance.

**Who should invest on SMBX, and who should avoid it?**

Well-suited, if offerings resume: community lenders placing small amounts across many local businesses who will read the Bond Prospectus and check any earlier bond by the same issuer on the dashboard; non-accredited investors who want monthly fixed income with no investor fee. Should avoid: anyone who needs liquidity (no resale, terms to ten years), anyone who requires a published default and recovery history (none exists and 53 auction numbers are absent with outcomes that cannot be reconstructed), anyone who would fund by credit card, and, at the moment, anyone who wants to invest at all, since nothing is listed. Existing bondholders should treat servicing continuity as their live risk and keep independent records.


## Evidence appendix

Platform website captured September 16, 2026.

Five primary sources. (1) An SEC EDGAR census of every Form C naming SMBX as intermediary (portal CIK 0001707214): 271 filings by 250 issuers from 2019-08-02 to 2026-04-06, plus every lifecycle filing by those issuers in AltStreet's market-wide ledger (121 Form C/A, 6 Form C-U, 32 Form C-AR, 21 Form C-TR, 7 Form C-W, and 19 Form D or D/A). (2) A 2026-09-16 capture of SMBX's public market dashboard endpoint (api.thesmbx.com/api/v1.2/market/dashboard), which returned 222 auctions with amount raised, investor allocations, yield, term, minimum and maximum, payments made against scheduled, secured flag, status (settlement, MATURED, failed) and early-repaid and fully-paid flags. (3) Three Bond Prospectuses read in full (Maketto, LLC Series A 01-2027; Quesadilla Gorilla, Inc. Series A 01-2026; Geoponica Greens LLC Series A 07-2026), the SMBX Agreements and Disclosures (Terms of Service, Investor Agreement, Business Agreement), the Investor Educational Materials, the help center and 14 site pages captured 2026-09-16. (4) The portal's registration record: Form CFPORTAL of 2018-11-28 and amendments of 2021-09-01 and 2024-12-26, the company's 2021 Form D, and FINRA's funding-portal roster. (5) The SMBX blog including the 2024 wrap-up one-sheet, and press coverage (BusinessWire, ImpactAlpha, San Francisco Standard) cited as attributed. Repayment progress is AltStreet's heuristic: payments made compared with months elapsed since the auction end date minus one, capped at the term. EDGAR issuers and dashboard auctions were matched by normalized name; 146 of 271 matched, and unmatched populations were analyzed separately.

**Highlights**

- EDGAR census: 271 Form C filings by 250 issuers name SMBX (CIK 0001707214) as intermediary, 2019-08-02 to 2026-04-06; by year 1, 12, 33, 56, 61, 58, 46 and 4 (2026). All are debt at $10 per unit. Declared minimums sum to $10,637,800 and maximums to $45,566,500. Jurisdiction of incorporation: California 102, D.C. 32, Oregon 30, Delaware 16, Texas 11, New York 11.
- Dashboard census (2026-09-16): 222 auctions, numbered 1 to 275, so 53 numbers absent. 211 funded: $21,844,170 raised from 25,510 investor allocations; median raise $73,330; median 112 investors per bond, maximum 396; average allocation about $856. 11 failed to reach their minimum.
- Funded volume by close year: 2019 1 bond $139,380; 2020 6 / $488,130; 2021 16 / $1,458,490; 2022 41 / $5,271,110; 2023 39 / $3,718,190; 2024 53 / $4,635,950; 2025 48 / $5,791,110; 2026 7 / $341,810 (through April). Median coupon by year: 8%, 9%, 7.5%, 7.5%, 10.5%, 11%, 11.25%, 11.5%.
- Status: 148 in settlement ($17,797,960 raised, 18,757 allocations); 63 MATURED ($4,046,210, 6,753 allocations), 22 of them flagged early repaid ($1,509,660, average original term 42 months); 11 failed. All 63 matured bonds show payments made equal to payments scheduled.
- Repayment heuristic on the 148 settling bonds (payments made vs months since auction end minus one, capped at term): 147 within one payment of schedule; one two payments behind (Away Days Brewing, Oregon, 30 of 60 after 32 expected, $263,500, 10.5%). Eight bonds show all payments made but no fully-paid flag (Livie and Luca 60/60, Quesadilla Gorilla 60/60, Mira Zaki Photography 36/36, Trini Vybez 48/48, Snackrilege 36/36, Hacking Solutions 36/36, Bad Walter's 36/36, Donisima 23/24), read as status lag.
- Terms and coupons (211 funded): 36 months 93, 60 months 63, 24 months 20, 48 months 17, 84 months 7, 72 months 3, 120 months 1, under 24 months 6. Coupons cluster at 11.25% (33 bonds), 11% (27), 7.5% (24), 10.75% (22), 11.5% (20); range 6% to 11.5%. Secured: 12 listed, 11 funded, $2,026,860.
- Largest bonds: Boichik Bagels $1,070,000 (2022, 7.5%, 84 months, 396 investors, secured); Rose Pizzeria, Connect Wellness and Flora Grubb Gardens $500,000; Atelier Restaurant $485,340; Pete's Bagels $432,470; Breadbelly $400,000 (the 2024 wrap-up's 'largest raise on SMBX'); Palm City Wines $400,000.
- Issuer compliance (EDGAR, all 250 issuers): 6 Form C-U across 271 offerings (Bernal Cutlery 2019 $139,380; Our Life Foods 2020 $41,251; Rangoon Restaurant Concepts 2021 $101,600; OWB Holdings 2023 $119,956; Hard Training Fitness Club 2024 $26,550; Eunoia 2026 closed unsuccessfully); 32 Form C-AR by 27 issuers (by year 1, 1, 3, 4, 11, 3, 6, 1, 2 for 2018 to 2026); 21 Form C-TR, 13 of them in May to August 2022; 7 Form C-W. Of 127 issuers matched to a funded dashboard auction, 106 have a Form C before 2025-04: 17 filed a C-AR (12 of them later a C-TR) and 89 neither. Of all 206 issuers with a Form C before 2025-04 and no withdrawal, 26 filed a C-AR (20 of them later a C-TR) and 180 neither; every C-TR filer had first filed a C-AR, and a close could not be confirmed for the unmatched issuers.
- Fees as stated: investor agreement and CFPORTAL 'up to 6.0%' / '6% origination fee'; educational materials '4.5% service fee' and '$100 annual maintenance fee'; Geogreens prospectus 4.50%; Maketto and Quesadilla Gorilla 0% under program offerings; agreement: $50 monthly payment-processing fee for offerings launched on or after 2024-07-01, $25 for earlier offerings, while outstanding. Investors: 0% by bank account, 4% by card (max $5,000 per investor per week), $10 minimum withdrawal.
- Registration: CFPORTAL 2018-11-28; CFPORTAL/A 2021-09-01 and 2024-12-26 (address to 486 15th Ave, San Francisco; qualified third party Thread Bank; compensation description 6% origination fee; all disciplinary questions 'N'; Lozano control person). FINRA roster: SMBX, Inc., SEC File 7-129, active as of 2026-08-03. Legal scan 2026-09-16: no FINRA AWC, SEC, state or court action located; PACER and state dockets not searched.
- Servicing terms (Investor Agreement 3.4.2): SMBX 'does not guarantee that monthly payments will be made on time or at all'; on a missed payment it works with the issuer to cure; uncured after 30 days, 'monthly payments to investors will be halted at the 30-day delinquency point until the Small & Medium Business or Startup gets back on track'; payments are released only as received; 'a pending payment does not always mean the Bond-issuing small business has financial difficulty'.
- Absent auction numbers (Internet Archive CDX index of thesmbx.com/app/auction/*, 487 captured URLs, 228 distinct names): 48 archived auction names are absent from the 2026-09-16 dashboard (about 45 distinct businesses); 34 match a Form C on EDGAR (Alchemy 2023, Aurora Market II 2023, Black Hammer Brewing 2 2020, Culmination Brewing 2020, Carmelita 2022, Spitz 2023, Tazga 2022, West Coast Pretzels 2022 among them); two are Form C-W withdrawals (Cape Cod Cellars 2025, Jule's Foods 2021); three issuers filed Form C-TR (Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats 2022, Ohiya Networks 2023, Kai's Kookies 2022). Archived pages are application shells without offering data, so funded-versus-cancelled status of the removed listings is unknown.
- Activity in 2026: Form Cs filed 2026-01 to 2026-04 (4); last funded bonds closed April 2026; Cache (San Francisco, $450,000 maximum, 10%, 60 months) failed 2026-05-20; Eunoia LLC Form C-U 2026-08-19 'Offering closed unsuccessfully'; no live offering on 2026-09-16; newest blog post the 2024 wrap-up (March 2025); site footer '2026, SMBX, Inc.'.

**Primary source pages**

- thesmbx.com (home, /investors, /raise, /market, /help, /about, /gift-bond-program, Agreements and Disclosures PDF, five /app/auction pages), captured 2026-09-16
- api.thesmbx.com/api/v1.2/market/dashboard?platform=web (222 auctions), captured 2026-09-16
- Bond Prospectuses: Maketto, LLC (2021); Quesadilla Gorilla, Inc. (2020); Geoponica Greens LLC (2023)
- SMBX Investor Educational Materials (files.thesmbx.com)
- SEC EDGAR: Form CFPORTAL and amendments, Form D 2021-12-20 (CIK 0001707214); Form C family filings for 250 issuers
- FINRA Funding Portals We Regulate roster (updated 8/3/2026)
- SMBX blog: 2024 SMBX Wrapped (March 2025), Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Bay Area city pages
- AltStreet platform database (222 SMBX deal records, 63 realized outcomes, Form C census), September 2026


## Related

- Full review (HTML): https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/smbx
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Source page: https://altstreet.investments/platforms/reviews/smbx
Machine index: https://altstreet.investments/llms.txt
AltStreet reads what platforms, funds and issuers file with the SEC and what they tell investors, and publishes the difference. Figures are as filed or as captured on the date stated; nothing here is investment advice.