RDE Inc

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

On August 18, 2023, RDE, Inc. (“RDE”, the “Company”) entered into an agreement and plan of merger (the “Merger”) to acquire CardCash Exchange Inc (“CardCash”, the “Predecessor”). On December 29, 2023, the Merger was completed. As a result of the Merger, the Company adopted the controls and procedures of the Predecessor. The Company’s management, with the participation of its Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures pursuant to Rule 13a-15 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”), as of December 31, 2023.

Disclosure controls and procedures are designed at a reasonable assurance level to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC, and that information relating to the Company is accumulated and communicated to management, including our principal officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. The Company’s Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer has evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2023, and have concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of December 31, 2023 due to material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as described below.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as s defined by Rule 13a-15(f) and Rule 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act. The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of consolidated financial statements for external purposes in accordance with GAAP. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Management conducted an assessment of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on the framework and criteria established by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) (COSO). Based on the assessment, management concluded that, as of December 31, 2023, the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting were not effective.

We identified material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses identified include (i) we had inadequate segregation of duties consistent with control objectives. Specifically, certain personnel have the ability to both (i) create and post journal entries within our general ledger system and (ii) prepare and review account reconciliations; and (ii) we did not design and maintain effective controls over certain information technology (“IT”) general controls for information systems that are relevant to the preparation of our consolidated financial statements. Specifically, we did not design and maintain effective program change management controls to ensure that information technology program and data changes affecting certain financial IT applications and underlying accounting records are identified, tested, authorized and implemented appropriately.

Notwithstanding the identified material weaknesses, management has concluded that the Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K present fairly, in all material respects, the Company’s financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods disclosed in conformity with U.S. GAAP.

Planned Remediation of Material Weaknesses

Management has been actively engaged in developing and implementing remediation plans to address material weaknesses described above. These remediation efforts are ongoing and include or are expected to include designing and implementing controls to formalize roles and review responsibilities to align with our team’s skills and experience and designing and implementing controls over segregation of duties, and designing and implementing IT general controls, including controls over the review and update of user access rights and privileges and program change management controls.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, intends that our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving their objectives. However, our management does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

Auditor’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

This Annual Report does not include an attestation report of our independent registered public accounting firm regarding internal control over financial reporting. Management’s report was not subject to attestation by our independent registered public accounting firm pursuant to the rules of the SEC that permit us to provide only management’s report in this Annual Report.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the year ended December 31, 2023 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.