Author: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 17, 2025 / Markets prefer simple explanations. A vertical chart invites familiar labels. Momentum. Speculation. A passing frenzy. That framing misses what actually happened with SMX (NASDAQ:SMX).

Since November, SMX has advanced more than 1,900%, closing at $116 on Tuesday. Moves of that magnitude are often dismissed as temporary dislocations. This one behaved differently. It did not trade like a narrative spike. It traded like a repricing event, the kind that occurs when markets realize they misunderstood the underlying structure.

This was not enthusiasm discovering a story. It was the market discovering what SMX actually is: a transformative force in how the world will view supply chains from this point forward. At least the smart ones.

When Price Moves Before Consensus Forms

It’s trading as it should. In foreign exchange markets, major moves often occur before consensus catches up. A shift in settlement mechanics, liquidity, or structural assumptions forces the price to adjust immediately. Explanations follow later.

SMX fits that pattern. For decades, global supply chains relied on declarations. Materials were assumed to be what paperwork said they were. Regulators tolerated this because scalable alternatives did not exist, and markets priced that assumption as a constant. That constant broke.

SMX built a system that assigns immutable molecular identity at the material level. Not at the document level. Not at the company level. In the material itself. Once that capability exists, everything downstream changes. Compliance becomes provable. Verification replaces assumption. Markets are efficient at repricing certainty, especially when it appears suddenly.

This was not gradual discovery. It was realization.

Why SMX Traded Like Infrastructure, Not a Microcap

Microcaps usually trade on potential. Infrastructure trades on necessity. SMX spent years priced as the former while functioning as the latter. Even while telling just how transformative, and timely, its technology can be and is.

When that disconnect corrected, the float structure mattered immediately. Supply was not built for discovery. It was built for obscurity. As interest increased and available shares tightened, price adjusted accordingly. That dynamic explains why the move did not fade after the first surge. It reset.

Markets recalibrated around a different understanding of value rather than chasing a transient trade. That is how SMX briefly reached levels near $490 before gravity and consolidation took hold.

Identity as a Settlement Requirement

Both moves make sense. Physical supply chains have operated on trust for decades, relying on declarations instead of proof. That model no longer holds under regulatory pressure, sustainability mandates, and geopolitical fragmentation. The initial upside reflected that realization. Subsequent market dynamics and settlement mechanics exposed the gravitational forces at work. Both were natural outcomes of appraisals and repricing.

What matters now is the leveling of the playing field. SMX can do what it does best: address the root cause of supply chain and market inefficiencies by embedding identity directly into materials. Verification becomes intrinsic rather than reported. This is not an ESG narrative. It is a settlement narrative, and settlement narratives matter across every market because they determine what can be trusted at scale. Here’s where its PCT comes in.

The Plastic Cycle Token Is a Utility Layer

SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token is often misunderstood. It is not designed as a speculative instrument. It functions as a utility layer that assigns economic value to verified circularity rather than promised outcomes.

The focus is measurement. Incentives follow measurement. That framework resonates across regulated environments because it turns verification into something systems can settle against rather than debate.

Why the Move Was Rational

Extreme price moves appear irrational when viewed through the wrong lens. Viewed correctly, they often reflect delayed recognition.

SMX combined three forces at once. A technology that solved a real problem. A regulatory environment that suddenly required that solution. A float structure unable to absorb rapid attention. That combination does not produce orderly charts.

Markets did not get excited. They got informed.

The most important signal is not how far SMX moved, but why it moved at all. Verification is becoming a prerequisite for participation in global trade. Systems that provide it will not be valued as optional tools. They will be valued as infrastructure.

SMX crossed that threshold, and price followed.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 17, 2025 / The tools driving digital transformation have never lacked innovation. What they have lacked is a reliable connection to the physical world.

Digital ledgers can be immutable. Automated contracts can be precise. Digital assets can be programmable. None of it matters if the information entering the system cannot be verified at the source. That gap has quietly limited enterprise adoption, regulatory confidence, and real-world deployment for more than a decade.

This is where SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) changes the equation. To be clear, SMX is not a disruptor of digital ledger systems or a replacement for existing frameworks. Its intent is to become the MVP on the digital team by making an already transformative system even better.

Keep in mind that SMX is already a key sector player. It enables digital systems to finally do what they were designed to do: enforce transparency, accountability, and verification without relying on trust. All in the physical world.

That distinction matters as distributed technologies move beyond theory and into infrastructure. Here’s the gap SMX fills.

Why Digital Ledgers Have Struggled With the Real World

Distributed ledgers are highly effective at preserving information once it exists. They are far less effective at determining whether that information was accurate to begin with. This limitation has followed the technology since its earliest enterprise pilots.

Supply chains, sustainability reporting, and asset provenance still depend largely on declarations. Someone reports data, the system records it, and the record is preserved sounds great. The problem is that the information stored isn’t always accurate. Why? Middlement that can change things that were supposed to be immutable into something less formidable.

SMX addresses this problem at the point of origin. And doing so, remove the guesswork and replace it with a single thing: proof.

By embedding identity directly into physical materials, SMX ensures that what enters a digital ledger is not a claim but a verifiable fact. Identity persists through transformation, recycling, and reuse. The data layer becomes grounded in physical reality rather than interpretation.

This is not an enhancement to ledger architecture. It is a correction to the layer that those systems depend on most.

Turning Decentralized Design Into Physical Reality

The original promise of decentralized systems was trust minimization. Reduce intermediaries. Remove reliance on belief. Let systems enforce outcomes.

Extending that promise into the physical economy has proven difficult. Materials cross borders. They are blended, processed, and resold. Paper trails degrade. Audits lag behind reality. Verification becomes probabilistic.

Again, SMX removes that uncertainty at the source. Because when identity is embedded into materials themselves, verification becomes continuous rather than episodic.

Digital ledger systems can then record, settle, and enforce outcomes based on reliable inputs. In basic terms, trust is not minimized after the fact. It becomes unnecessary from the start.

This is how decentralized principles scale beyond digital-native assets.

The Plastic Cycle Token as an Incentive Mechanism

In discussions around digital infrastructure, incentive mechanisms often receive outsized attention. With SMX, the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT) serves a specific and practical function.

It represents verified circularity rather than aspirational sustainability. Its value is derived from proof, not promises. That makes it an incentive mechanism rather than a speculative instrument.

From a systems perspective, this structure is familiar. Platforms function best when incentives reward behavior that strengthens the ecosystem. In this case, the behavior is verified recovery, reuse, and accountability across physical supply chains.

The token does not replace digital ledger platforms. It gives them something meaningful to settle.

Why Enterprises and Regulators Pay Attention

Enterprise adoption of distributed ledger technology has always hinged on one question. Can regulators trust it?

SMX helps answer that question directly. With its platform, saying a resounding YES.

They are showing across the world that when physical inputs are verifiable at the molecular or material level, ledger records become auditable without reliance on self-reporting. Compliance becomes measurable. ESG reporting becomes defensible. Cross-border trade gains transparency instead of friction.

For regulators, this is not about ideology. It is about visibility. For enterprises, it is about reducing risk. Distributed systems shift from experimentation to infrastructure.

This is where SMX operates, at the intersection of incentives, compliance, and technology.

The Market Is Recognizing the Enablement Layer

Recent market attention to SMX reflects global market recognition, not day trader excitement. Markets tend to reward systems that enable other systems to function better. Infrastructure often outperforms applications over time because it compounds value elsewhere.

Here’s the best part. SMX does not ask existing ecosystems to change how they operate. It gives them better inputs. Better data. Better certainty.

Once that layer exists, value builds across platforms, applications, and settlement systems, finally giving them something solid to rely on.

The Next Phase Is Physical

The next phase of digital ledger adoption will not be driven by louder narratives or theoretical architectures. It will be driven by integration with the physical economy. Materials. Goods. Supply chains. Compliance.

SMX represents that shift. Not as a competitor to digital ledger systems, but as an enabler of their original purpose. To make truth verifiable. To make trust optional. To allow systems to enforce reality rather than interpret it.

SMX does exactly that. And by doing so, it strengthens the foundation on which modern digital infrastructure was always meant to operate.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 17, 2025 / The tools driving digital transformation have never lacked innovation. What they have lacked is a reliable connection to the physical world.

Digital ledgers can be immutable. Automated contracts can be precise. Digital assets can be programmable. None of it matters if the information entering the system cannot be verified at the source. That gap has quietly limited enterprise adoption, regulatory confidence, and real-world deployment for more than a decade.

This is where SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) changes the equation. To be clear, SMX is not a disruptor of digital ledger systems or a replacement for existing frameworks. Its intent is to become the MVP on the digital team by making an already transformative system even better.

Keep in mind that SMX is already a key sector player. It enables digital systems to finally do what they were designed to do: enforce transparency, accountability, and verification without relying on trust. All in the physical world.

That distinction matters as distributed technologies move beyond theory and into infrastructure. Here’s the gap SMX fills.

Why Digital Ledgers Have Struggled With the Real World

Distributed ledgers are highly effective at preserving information once it exists. They are far less effective at determining whether that information was accurate to begin with. This limitation has followed the technology since its earliest enterprise pilots.

Supply chains, sustainability reporting, and asset provenance still depend largely on declarations. Someone reports data, the system records it, and the record is preserved sounds great. The problem is that the information stored isn’t always accurate. Why? Middlement that can change things that were supposed to be immutable into something less formidable.

SMX addresses this problem at the point of origin. And doing so, remove the guesswork and replace it with a single thing: proof.

By embedding identity directly into physical materials, SMX ensures that what enters a digital ledger is not a claim but a verifiable fact. Identity persists through transformation, recycling, and reuse. The data layer becomes grounded in physical reality rather than interpretation.

This is not an enhancement to ledger architecture. It is a correction to the layer that those systems depend on most.

Turning Decentralized Design Into Physical Reality

The original promise of decentralized systems was trust minimization. Reduce intermediaries. Remove reliance on belief. Let systems enforce outcomes.

Extending that promise into the physical economy has proven difficult. Materials cross borders. They are blended, processed, and resold. Paper trails degrade. Audits lag behind reality. Verification becomes probabilistic.

Again, SMX removes that uncertainty at the source. Because when identity is embedded into materials themselves, verification becomes continuous rather than episodic.

Digital ledger systems can then record, settle, and enforce outcomes based on reliable inputs. In basic terms, trust is not minimized after the fact. It becomes unnecessary from the start.

This is how decentralized principles scale beyond digital-native assets.

The Plastic Cycle Token as an Incentive Mechanism

In discussions around digital infrastructure, incentive mechanisms often receive outsized attention. With SMX, the Plastic Cycle Token (PCT) serves a specific and practical function.

It represents verified circularity rather than aspirational sustainability. Its value is derived from proof, not promises. That makes it an incentive mechanism rather than a speculative instrument.

From a systems perspective, this structure is familiar. Platforms function best when incentives reward behavior that strengthens the ecosystem. In this case, the behavior is verified recovery, reuse, and accountability across physical supply chains.

The token does not replace digital ledger platforms. It gives them something meaningful to settle.

Why Enterprises and Regulators Pay Attention

Enterprise adoption of distributed ledger technology has always hinged on one question. Can regulators trust it?

SMX helps answer that question directly. With its platform, saying a resounding YES.

They are showing across the world that when physical inputs are verifiable at the molecular or material level, ledger records become auditable without reliance on self-reporting. Compliance becomes measurable. ESG reporting becomes defensible. Cross-border trade gains transparency instead of friction.

For regulators, this is not about ideology. It is about visibility. For enterprises, it is about reducing risk. Distributed systems shift from experimentation to infrastructure.

This is where SMX operates, at the intersection of incentives, compliance, and technology.

The Market Is Recognizing the Enablement Layer

Recent market attention to SMX reflects global market recognition, not day trader excitement. Markets tend to reward systems that enable other systems to function better. Infrastructure often outperforms applications over time because it compounds value elsewhere.

Here’s the best part. SMX does not ask existing ecosystems to change how they operate. It gives them better inputs. Better data. Better certainty.

Once that layer exists, value builds across platforms, applications, and settlement systems, finally giving them something solid to rely on.

The Next Phase Is Physical

The next phase of digital ledger adoption will not be driven by louder narratives or theoretical architectures. It will be driven by integration with the physical economy. Materials. Goods. Supply chains. Compliance.

SMX represents that shift. Not as a competitor to digital ledger systems, but as an enabler of their original purpose. To make truth verifiable. To make trust optional. To allow systems to enforce reality rather than interpret it.

SMX does exactly that. And by doing so, it strengthens the foundation on which modern digital infrastructure was always meant to operate.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / Gold does not change easily. Its rules, rituals, and trust frameworks have been built over centuries, reinforced by habit as much as by law. When gold markets do shift, it is rarely because of rhetoric or regulation. They move when infrastructure evolves so decisively that the old way of doing things starts to look inefficient by comparison. That is what is happening now, and Dubai is at the center of it.

For more than twenty years, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre has invested in becoming a global nexus for precious metals. Vaults, exchanges, refiners, and logistics networks were assembled patiently, piece by piece. But the real inflection point did not arrive with scale alone. It arrived when DMCC embraced a fundamentally different approach to trust, one that embeds verification directly into the material itself.

That shift became possible through SMX’s (NASDAQ:SMX) molecular identity technology. By enabling gold to carry a permanent, non-removable identity at the molecular level, SMX introduced a new concept to precious metals markets. Gold no longer needs to be explained through paperwork or defended through audits. Its authenticity becomes intrinsic. Origin, purity, and lifecycle history travel with the metal, regardless of how many times it is refined, transported, or traded.

For a market long dependent on documentation, that is a structural change.

From Paper Trust to Physical Proof

Historically, gold verification has relied on a patchwork of certificates, chain-of-custody records, and third-party assurances. Those systems worked when supply chains were shorter and market participants fewer. As gold flows expanded across continents and through increasingly complex intermediaries, gaps emerged. Documentation could lag. Records could fragment. Trust became something traders inferred rather than confirmed.

Dubai saw the limitation clearly. A modern trading hub cannot scale indefinitely on assumptions. It requires proof that is durable, portable, and universally interpretable. Molecular identity provided exactly that.

By embedding verification into the gold itself, SMX’s technology removes ambiguity at its source. The material no longer depends on external records to establish its legitimacy. The identity persists through melting, recasting, and storage. This is not a compliance overlay. It is a redesign of how trust functions inside the commodity.

That is why Dubai did not position itself merely as a venue for trading verified gold. It positioned itself as a verification authority. The distinction matters. Marketplaces host volume. Authorities define standards.

A Signal the Market Could Not Ignore

The implications of this model were on full display at the DMCC Precious Metals Conference, where SMX demonstrated how embedded identity reshapes the mechanics of the gold trade. When verification is inseparable from the material, several things change at once. Traders gain immediate transparency. Regulators gain clarity without adding friction. Exchanges benefit from cleaner liquidity because uncertainty no longer shadows each transaction.

No document, however well intentioned, can replicate the precision of identity that physically travels with the asset. That realization resonated across the room, and beyond it. The market understood that Dubai was no longer refining gold alone. It was refining trust.

SMX’s broader expansion strategy supports that vision. With financial architecture in place to scale molecular identity across metals markets, the company is positioned to meet growing global demand for verified materials. The alignment between infrastructure, technology, and capital gives this shift durability. It is not experimental. It is operational.

Why Dubai’s Model Scales

Dubai’s geographic role strengthens the impact of this approach. As a crossroads for material flows from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the region faces verification challenges that single-origin hubs do not. Competing certification regimes and inconsistent standards create friction elsewhere. Dubai’s solution avoids that trap.

Molecular identity does not replace existing standards. It reinforces them. It acts as a neutral layer that transcends jurisdiction while remaining compatible with regulatory frameworks. That universality is what allows the model to scale across borders without becoming entangled in politics or regional preferences.

The interest from industry participants, including initiatives tied to authenticated gold products, underscores the commercial logic. When a gold bar carries its full lifecycle history at the molecular level, it becomes more than a commodity unit. It becomes a verified asset. Pricing becomes more precise. Risk premiums compress. Confidence replaces conjecture.

Authenticity, in this context, is not an ethical talking point. It is a competitive advantage.

Elevating Markets, Not Controlling Them

Dubai’s approach is not about dominating gold markets through policy or geography. It is about elevating them commercially. By creating an environment where verified material flows cleanly and consistently, the region attracts liquidity organically. Traders gravitate toward systems that reduce uncertainty and accelerate settlement.

This is why the shift matters beyond Dubai. Once one hub demonstrates that verification can be embedded, permanent, and scalable, the rest of the market must respond. Not because it is forced to, but because the alternative starts to look outdated.

The future of precious metals will not be defined by larger vaults or thicker compliance manuals. It will be defined by materials that can prove what they are, where they came from, and how they moved, without debate. Dubai understood that early. SMX made it technically possible.

Gold markets do not pivot when someone demands change. They pivot when someone shows a better way to operate. That moment has arrived, and the ripple effects are just beginning.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / For years, even decades, analysts kept waiting for gold to reclaim its role as the foundation of global money. They predicted a return to a monetary gold standard, a moment when central banks would peg currencies to bullion again. But while the world argued about economic theory, the real revolution arrived from an unexpected direction. The next global gold standard will not be financial. It will be forensic.

Gold is entering an era where value is determined not by macroeconomics, but by molecular identity. The question will no longer be how much gold you hold. It will be how much of that gold can prove its truth.

Behind the scenes, global gold markets are fraying. Bars that cannot be confirmed. Supplies with uncertain origin. Vaults that inherited bullion through decades of undocumented transfers. Documentation systems built for a slower world. In the age of sanctions, supply chain crackdowns, and geopolitics, trust is no longer enough. The market needs a gold standard rooted in verification, not nostalgia. This is the quiet crisis gold has been hiding. Its greatest strength has always been certainty, yet its greatest weakness has always been unverifiability.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) has drafted the architecture for this new standard. Its molecular identity technology embeds a permanent fingerprint directly into the metal itself. Melt it, recast it, split it, refine it, transport it – the identity stays. That turns gold from a metal that relies on trust into a metal that declares its own truth.

SMX Raises the Gold Standard with a Single Thing: PROOF

The old gold standard functioned on one assumption: that gold held by banks was exactly what banks said it was. For more than a century, institutions moved bullion based on paperwork, serial numbers, and refinery markings. These tools worked when supply chains were simple and geopolitical tensions were low. They do not work now. Today, gold moves through dozens of hands. It is melted, reshaped, alloyed, and transported across borders with inconsistent oversight. Every transformation breaks the chain of identity that the monetary system once trusted blindly.

That is why modern markets no longer fear gold shortages. They fear gold doubt. All it takes is one vault discovering compromised bars for the system to question the authenticity of everything surrounding it. Monetary theory cannot solve that. Certificates cannot solve that. Even the best auditors cannot solve that. You cannot anchor a global currency system to a material that can erase its own past with a blast furnace.

A molecular gold standard solves the flaw entirely. Gold becomes self-authenticating. It carries its own history. It cannot lose its identity. That is the world SMX is building, and it is the world the monetary gold standard needed but never had.

Price-verified Gold at a Premium, Discount Everything Else

Once identity becomes infrastructure, gold splits into two categories. Verified bullion with molecular proof becomes the premium asset. Unverified bullion becomes the risky asset. Investors will gravitate to the tier with certainty. Banks will demand the tier with traceability. Exchanges will list the tier with compliance clarity. And regulators will enforce the tier with forensic-grade evidence. The market will not debate which one deserves a higher price. It will demonstrate it through liquidity, premiums, and global acceptance.

At this point, gold becomes more than a store of value. It becomes a store of truth. That truth has pricing power. Verified gold will command premiums because it eliminates the risk that regulators seize it, vaults reject it, or investors discount it. Unverified gold will drift into a second-class category because no one can guarantee its legality, purity, or origin at scale. The new gold standard is not theoretical. It is operational.

SMX is the company enabling that shift and driving this change. Its technology gives gold a memory, a history, and an identity the market cannot forge or lose. With that, the next era of gold will not be about weight. It will be about proof. And the gold that carries it will likely become the world’s most important asset class.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / For a century, the world has operated on a comfortable illusion. Central banks believe they know how much gold they hold. Sovereign wealth funds assume their reserves are exactly what the paperwork claims. Bullion banks trust that what sits beneath their headquarters is perfectly authentic. But the truth is far more fragile. No country on earth has ever conducted a full, bottom-up authentication of its gold reserves. Not one. Reserve systems rely on certificates, refinery stamps, and legacy chain-of-custody documents that lose meaning the moment a bar is melted or restamped. The world’s most important financial backstop has never been tested with modern tools.

That era of blind trust is ending. Geopolitical tension, sanctions enforcement, and the rise of illicit bullion flows are pushing nations toward something they have never done before: a comprehensive forensic audit of sovereign gold holdings. When that audit begins, the discoveries will not be subtle. Discrepancies between certificates and physical truth. Bars with incomplete histories. Bullion that cannot prove origin. Refineries whose markings cannot be validated. Once the first cracks appear, the credibility of global gold reserves will shift from trust to evidence.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is positioned squarely at the center of the coming reset. Its molecular identity technology gives gold a permanent fingerprint that survives melting, casting, and decades of storage. And with SMX backed by a substantial equity purchase agreement, it now has the capital to deploy verification infrastructure directly into the sovereign, institutional, and vault ecosystems that will define the future of global reserves.

The World Thinks It Knows What’s in Its Vaults… It Doesn’t

Most sovereign vaults contain bars that have changed hands, jurisdictions, and ownership more times than any paper trail can fully capture. Some were acquired during political upheaval. Some were inherited from collapsed empires. Some were moved during wartime evacuations. Others came through refineries that no longer exist. These bars sit in perfect stacks beneath central banks, but their identities have been lost to time, heat, and recasting.

When the first nation demands molecular verification of its own holdings, every other nation will face immediate pressure to do the same. No central bank wants to be the one left holding bullion that cannot prove its origin or compliance. No sovereign fund wants to announce that part of its reserves are unverifiable. No government wants to discover that some of the bars it relies on for currency stability were mined in sanctioned regions decades ago. The risk is real, and the incentives to act quickly are intensifying.

The audit will not be driven by curiosity. It will be driven by necessity. Unverified gold is a liability in a world where sanctions violations, counterfeit bars, and illicit networks are becoming geopolitical weapons. To secure their economies, nations will demand proof at a level the legacy system cannot provide.

The Reserve Market Will Split Into Two Tiers Overnight

Once the audits begin, global gold reserves will separate into two categories. Verified gold that carries a persistent molecular identity will become Tier 1 reserve collateral. Unverified gold, even if physically identical, will be treated as Tier 2 collateral with increased risk, reduced mobility, and lower financial utility. Central banks do not accept uncertainty. They accept evidence.

This shift will change everything: Reserves will be repriced. Collateral rules will tighten. Sovereign balance sheets will evolve. International trade agreements will adjust. And, currency stabilization strategies will pivot.

This is not theoretical. It mirrors what happened in sovereign bond markets, credit ratings, and even energy reserves. Once verification becomes available, markets punish anything that lacks it. Nations will not want reserves that fail forensic audit requirements. They will want assets that can withstand scrutiny at the molecular level.

SMX is the only company capable of delivering this verification layer across entire reserves.

The Vault Reset Will Define the Next Era of Gold

And they want to share. The first nation to authenticate its reserves will trigger a chain reaction. Others will follow to avoid reputational and financial disadvantage. A vault that can prove its reserves at a molecular level will command trust globally. A vault that cannot will be viewed as opaque, risky, and outdated.

SMX is building the architecture for this new world. Its technology gives gold a memory, a history, and an identity the market can measure instead of assume. The Vault Reset is coming. Nations that embrace verification will strengthen their financial foundations. Nations that cling to the old system will discover that gold without identity is no longer the safe haven they believed it to be.

And that could cause their reserves to not only lose their luster, but also cost them billions. The better course of action: call SMX.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / The world has spent years talking about circularity, ESG integrity, and supply-chain transparency, but the truth is simple. No industry has ever had the verification infrastructure needed to make any of those goals real. Plastics lose identity when they melt. Metals lose identity when they move. Gold loses identity the moment it hits a furnace. Documentation has filled the gap, but documentation was designed for a slower, less interconnected world. Into this vacuum stepped SMX (NASDAQ:SMX), and the company is not moving alone. It is collaborating across plastics, metals, gold, packaging, and national circularity programs to create the world’s first verification mesh.

This mesh is not theoretical. It is forming in real factories, research centers, recycling facilities, and metals hubs. SMX is working together with one of the world’s largest chemical and materials companies to embed molecular identity into polymers, turning ordinary plastics into traceable, auditable materials. At the same time, SMX is collaborating with a major precious-metals trade ecosystem in Dubai, showing how identity can follow gold across melting, recasting, and trading cycles. The company is also working with a global gold-processing partner to demonstrate persistent identity in precious metals that move between continents every day.

Further inside the mesh are partners in Europe and Asia. A leading European advanced-materials research institute is testing SMX’s markers under extreme industrial conditions, validating how identity can survive heat, pressure, and chemical transformations. In Asia, SMX is working with packaging manufacturers, logistics companies, and well-established recycling operations to develop national circularity models where materials declare their own truth.

A Network That Turns Supply Chains Into Memory Systems

Each collaboration solves a different problem, but the effect is collective. Plastics gain traceability. Gold gains authenticity. Metals gain persistent identity. Packaging gains compliance integrity. Recycling gains forensic auditability. Together, these capabilities create something the world has never had: a cross-industry memory system. Materials stop behaving like anonymous commodities and begin acting like verified assets.

This is the difference between circularity as a slogan and circularity as a functioning system. A plastic component becomes a certified material that can be authenticated at every stage. A gold bar becomes a verified instrument with a history that no amount of melting can erase. A shipment of alloyed steel becomes a traceable product that regulators and manufacturers can both trust. These shifts do not live on paper. They live inside the material itself.

The proof network also reduces the cost of trust. Companies no longer spend millions on audits that do not survive a single melt cycle. Regulators no longer chase unverifiable data. Brands no longer gamble their reputations on supply-chain promises they cannot confirm. The verification mesh replaces assumption with evidence.

SMX Is Wiring The World’s Circular Economy

Most companies try to transform one industry at a time. SMX is building across all of them simultaneously. That is what makes the proof network so powerful. It links plastics to metals. Metals to gold. Gold to packaging. Packaging to recycling. And recycling back to manufacturing. No sector evolves in isolation. They evolve as a system.

This shift also creates competitive advantage. A manufacturer using verified inputs outperforms one relying on unverifiable supply. A recycler producing authenticated materials commands higher margins than one selling anonymous output. A precious-metals hub with verified bars attracts more liquidity than one relying on legacy documentation. Proof becomes the currency of modern commerce. SMX is not creating a new ecosystem. It is giving the existing one a backbone.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / For more than a year, SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) quietly built the kind of infrastructure companies talk about but rarely execute. Molecular identity for plastics. Traceability for metals. Verification that survives every transformation inside some of the world’s most advanced bullion ecosystems. National circularity programs developed with leading research institutions. These weren’t concepts on a slide deck. They were real systems deployed with real partners across multiple continents.

None of it happened overnight. But something did happen overnight. The market finally noticed. SMX doesn’t comment on day-to-day price movements, but it can acknowledge that global interest has surged. And that interest didn’t materialize because of hype. It materialized because the world is starting to understand what SMX has actually built.

The pattern shows up every time a genuine shift occurs. Markets ignore a transformation right up until they realize it is no longer theoretical. That is the moment corporate narratives turn into inflection points. SMX is now living inside that moment, with investor and stakeholder interest forcing global markets to reassess what SMX represents.

The Revved Engine of PROOF

Every major technological transition begins with a single ignition point. Something changes in how people see the technology, and suddenly the story reframes itself. For SMX, that ignition point wasn’t a catchphrase. It wasn’t a marketing push. It was proof.

When SMX’s technology was demonstrated inside the DMCC precious-metals ecosystem, the industry witnessed verification that survives smelting, recasting, storage, shipping, and handling. They saw gold carry its identity like a passport that can’t be faked or washed away. They saw the end of counterfeit bars, the end of paperwork-dependent authenticity, and the end of blind trust. The metals sector had been waiting for this level of certainty for decades. When SMX delivered it, the signal didn’t stay in Dubai. It traveled to traders, auditors, refiners, ESG officers, regulators and institutional investors who have battled the same problem for years: once a material changes form, nobody can verify its origins.

The market didn’t wake up because SMX shifted its messaging. The market woke up because SMX proved its message.

A Broad Use-Case Recognized

As global attention intensified, the narrative widened. Markets began to connect the dots between SMX’s expanding collaborations with some of the world’s largest materials, chemical, and industrial groups. They took a closer look at the work being validated through European research institutions that pressure-test materials at industrial extremes. They recognized the development of national circularity programs across ASEAN, where packaging, logistics, and recycling leaders are leaning into verification-driven infrastructure. They saw the growing influence inside the gold ecosystem where miners, processors, and global trading hubs are sharpening their requirements for trust and traceability. Different industries, different geographies, but the same revelation kept surfacing. Materials now have memory.

That is the shift the market is reacting to. Not noise. Infrastructure. When embedded identities begin to travel through plastics, metals, textiles, packaging, and bullion, verification stops behaving like a feature. It becomes the baseline for how supply chains operate. And when the baseline moves, the markets built on top of it move too.

Nothing about this moment indicates that SMX suddenly became a different company. The opposite is true. The world simply became more aware of the company SMX already was. Supply chains are tightening. Regulators are demanding harder evidence. Metals markets are under renewed scrutiny. Global brands are being exposed for unverifiable sustainability claims. The entire system is shifting toward one universal requirement. Proof. And proof is what SMX has spent years engineering at the molecular level.

The market finally woke up. And given the urgency unfolding across global industries, it woke up at exactly the right time, because the world now needs what SMX already built.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / There are moments when a company moves from being a name on a ticker to becoming a topic that keeps showing up in investor conversations. SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) has entered that moment. What began as a quiet interest in its verification technology has turned into something broader, with traders, analysts, and crypto readers all starting to recognize the same thing. The Plastic Cycle Token is not a side project. It is the organizing layer for a new category of real-world assets built on verifiable truth rather than estimates or intentions.

For years, the sustainability world has struggled with unreliable data, vague audit trails, and recycled materials that could not be confidently traced from creation to reentry. SMX stepped into that gap with a molecular identity system that allows materials to carry their own history. The Plastic Cycle Token brings that information into the digital space, turning every verified event into a measurable asset. Investors are beginning to understand what that means. It takes sustainability out of the realm of interpretation and brings it into the realm of proof.

That shift is why SMX keeps drawing interest. It is not because the company chased a narrative. It is because it built infrastructure that answers a problem crypto has been frustrated with for a decade. The digital asset world loves innovation, but it worships verification. SMX arrived with a model that lets markets assign value to confirmed activity, not unverified claims. That is a language the crypto community speaks fluently.

The PCT Is Earning Attention Because It Solves a Real Problem

Every cycle brings a new wave of tokens that promise to represent environmental impact or sustainable action. Most lose credibility the moment users ask for hard data. The Plastic Cycle Token is gaining momentum precisely because it avoids that trap. It is built on SMX’s physical verification layer, which assigns materials a molecular identity and follows them from production to disposal to recovery. That identity becomes the foundation for a digital token that reflects events that actually occurred.

Crypto readers understand how rare that is. The real-world asset space is full of ambition but short on execution. What SMX created is not just a token. It is a ledger of truth running parallel to industrial activity. Each verified recovery event becomes a digital representation that can be tracked, shared, and valued. Investors are recognizing that the PCT is not designed to be symbolic. It is designed to be functional, measurable, and economically relevant.

Market interest is rising because the PCT changes how businesses think about compliance and how markets think about value. Instead of treating sustainability as an expense, companies can begin seeing it as a performance category tied to verifiable outputs. Crypto traders immediately see the potential. When you give markets a digital asset backed by proof, liquidity follows. And when liquidity forms around something with real-world grounding, the conversation shifts from ideology to economics.

Investors Are Realizing SMX Built Infrastructure, Not Hype

The most compelling part of SMX’s recent visibility is that none of it feels manufactured. There was no dramatic marketing pivot or attempt to ride a trend. The attention started building only after the PCT framework became clearer and more people understood what SMX has been constructing. The company is creating a closed-loop system where physical goods anchor digital records, where recovery is more than a checkbox, and where tokens reflect verified performance.

That is why SMX’s story is resonating across both traditional markets and the crypto sector. Investors appreciate technology that unlocks efficiency. Regulators and brands appreciate verification they can trust. Crypto builders appreciate digital assets backed by real activity. The PCT sits at the intersection of all three. It offers a way to turn physical proof into digital value without relying on unverifiable reporting.

The momentum around SMX comes from the realization that the company is not offering a theory about the future. It is offering infrastructure for it. Markets are beginning to treat the Plastic Cycle Token as more than a sustainability tool. They are treating it as a new economic layer that links industry, data, and digital value into one coherent system. That is why interest keeps growing. SMX did not tell the market what it would become. It showed the market what it built.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 16, 2025 / Every market cycle introduces a new category of assets that feels almost inevitable in hindsight. Sometimes it is a technological leap. Sometimes it’s a financial instrument. Sometimes it’s a shift in how value is measured. Today, a growing number of investors are beginning to ask whether verified recovery is emerging as the next major asset class. The idea has been around for years, but no company has created a system capable of turning recovery into a measurable economic unit. SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) has changed that conversation with its Plastic Cycle Token, and the market is starting to take note.

Verified recovery has always existed in theory. Companies recover materials, recyclers process them, and manufacturers reintroduce them into the supply chain. The problem is that these actions have historically been difficult to validate. Reporting depends on paperwork, self-attestation, and estimates that vary widely between regions. That uncertainty makes it nearly impossible to build a financial structure around recovery. Markets need clarity, consistency, and data that can withstand scrutiny. SMX built a verification rail that gives them exactly that. With molecular identity markers applied to materials, recovery events become traceable and provable.

The Plastic Cycle Token takes this further by converting verified recovery into a digital representation that markets can understand and interact with. It is not symbolic. It is not speculative. It is tied directly to events that happened in the real world and were scientifically confirmed. Investors are beginning to recognize that this creates an entirely new economic category. Recovery is no longer just a regulatory obligation. It becomes a measurable performance metric with market-ready documentation. Once investors can confirm that a recovery event occurred, they can value it. And once they can value it, it becomes an asset.

The Message is Resonating

This shift is resonating because it reconnects sustainability with economics in a way that has been missing. Traditional environmental credits often rely on projections or generalized assumptions, which undermines confidence and limits their usefulness. The PCT represents verified outcomes. That distinction matters. It allows markets to reward actual recovery rather than modeled recovery. This opens the door for recovery to evolve from a cost center into a revenue-linked activity supported by transparent data. Investors appreciate frameworks that elevate real performance, and SMX is offering a foundation for exactly that.

Digital asset traders see an even broader implication. Verified recovery introduces a digital asset that behaves like a commodity but is anchored in scientific truth. This is the type of structure that digital asset markets value. A token that carries proof, and it cannot be altered or retroactively adjusted. It reflects actions that hold weight in supply chains, regulatory environments, and corporate reporting. As more companies adopt verification systems, the demand for authenticated recovery data increases. That demand becomes economic weight behind the PCT.

SMX is not asking the market to imagine a future where these systems matter. It is showing how they already fit into emerging compliance requirements and operational standards. The PCT positions verified recovery as an asset that industries can use to meet expectations while building measurable value.

Embracing Verifiable Data

The market interest reflects an understanding that this model has scalability far beyond plastics. Any resource that moves through a cycle of creation, use, and recovery can eventually benefit from similar verification.

Investors are treating verified recovery differently because it sits at the intersection of transparency, economics and digital enablement. It is rare for a new asset class to emerge from a fundamental operational action, but SMX has highlighted how recovery can become precisely that. The Plastic Cycle Token is not redefining sustainability. It is redefining how markets capture and express the value of recovery. Interest is growing because investors understand a simple truth. When proof becomes measurable, it becomes valuable. And once something becomes valuable, markets build around it.

About SMX

As global businesses face new and complex challenges relating to carbon neutrality and meeting new governmental and regional regulations and standards, SMX is able to offer players along the value chain access to its marking, tracking, measuring and digital platform technology to transition more successfully to a low-carbon economy.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intends,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, for example: matters relating to the Company’s fight against abusive and possibly illegal trading tactics against the Company’s stock; successful launch and implementation of SMX’s joint projects with manufacturers and other supply chain participants of steel, rubber and other materials; changes in SMX’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; SMX’s ability to develop and launch new products and services, including its planned Plastic Cycle Token; SMX’s ability to successfully and efficiently integrate future expansion plans and opportunities; SMX’s ability to grow its business in a cost-effective manner; SMX’s product development timeline and estimated research and development costs; the implementation, market acceptance and success of SMX’s business model; developments and projections relating to SMX’s competitors and industry; and SMX’s approach and goals with respect to technology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing views as of any subsequent date, and no obligation is undertaken to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the ability to maintain the listing of the Company’s shares on Nasdaq; changes in applicable laws or regulations; any lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMX’s business; the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and identify and realize additional opportunities; the risk of downturns and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which SMX operates; the risk that SMX and its current and future collaborators are unable to successfully develop and commercialize SMX’s products or services, or experience significant delays in doing so; the risk that the Company may never achieve or sustain profitability; the risk that the Company will need to raise additional capital to execute its business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; the risk that the Company experiences difficulties in managing its growth and expanding operations; the risk that third-party suppliers and manufacturers are not able to fully and timely meet their obligations; the risk that SMX is unable to secure or protect its intellectual property; the possibility that SMX may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and other risks and uncertainties described in SMX’s filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire