Author: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 24, 2025 / At its core, the SMX value proposition is not fragmented, even though it touches multiple industries. It is unified. What appears on the surface as plastics, textiles, metals, partnerships, and verification tools is, in reality, a single system designed to solve one foundational problem: the absence of persistent truth in global supply chains.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) embeds identity directly into physical materials, allowing proof to travel with matter itself. That one capability cascades across markets. It enables traceability where documentation fails, auditability where trust breaks down, and verification where claims have historically been unverifiable. The power of the model is that it does not need to be reinvented for each sector. The same identity layer functions across materials, jurisdictions, and use cases.

This is why SMX should not be evaluated as a collection of projects. It is infrastructure. Infrastructure solves multiple downstream problems simultaneously because it operates below the surface. Once embedded, it quietly reshapes behavior without requiring constant intervention.

That unification is what allows SMX to expand horizontally without diluting its focus. Each new market does not introduce complexity. It reinforces relevance.

Validation, Partnerships, and Capital Efficiency Working Together

What distinguishes SMX’s current phase is not any single achievement, but how its components now reinforce one another. Industrial validation proves the technology works. Partnerships place it inside operating ecosystems. Capital efficiency allows it to scale without rebuilding the platform each time.

These elements are not sequential. They are circular. Validation makes partnerships viable. Partnerships accelerate adoption. Adoption improves capital efficiency. Capital efficiency supports broader validation. The loop tightens with each execution milestone.

From a valuation perspective, this is critical. Markets tend to price companies based on isolated metrics, revenue, burn, dilution, or pipeline. SMX’s value emerges from interaction effects. The whole is more valuable than the sum of its parts because each part increases the effectiveness of the others.

This is why traditional comparisons fall short. SMX is not just a technology provider, a data platform, or a sustainability solution. It is a connective layer that allows multiple stakeholders to operate with shared, verifiable truth. That role is rare, and once established, difficult to displace.

Why the Market Often Recognizes This Late

Integrated platforms that solve structural problems are almost always misunderstood early. They do not fit cleanly into existing categories. Their revenue ramps unevenly because adoption occurs across systems, not customers. Their value is clearer in hindsight than in spreadsheets.

SMX sits squarely in that pattern. Its recent execution suggests the hardest questions have been answered. The technology functions. The system integrates. The partners engage. What remains is normalization, the slow but inevitable process by which infrastructure becomes assumed.

When that happens, valuation frameworks shift. The market stops asking whether the system is needed and starts assuming it is. At that point, pricing is no longer anchored to individual deals or quarterly optics. It reflects strategic position.

The full SMX value proposition is this: one identity layer, embedded in physical reality, enabling proof at scale across markets that increasingly demand it. That proposition compounds. It does not reset with each new vertical. It strengthens.

For stakeholders, the implication is straightforward. SMX should be viewed not as a story unfolding one announcement at a time, but as a system coming into alignment. Those moments are often quiet. The repricing that follows rarely is.

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

This information contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ: SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward-looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments, market demand for authenticated recycled content, the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology, global economic conditions, supply chain constraints, evolving environmental policies, and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 23, 2025 / For much of the modern gold trade, trust has been delegated to individual companies. Refiners certified their suppliers. Traders vouched for counterparties. Documentation followed the metal, often across borders and jurisdictions that applied standards unevenly.

That model is breaking down. As global gold markets tighten expectations around responsible sourcing, AML, and ESG compliance, trust is increasingly being evaluated at the jurisdictional level. Markets are no longer asking whether a single participant claims compliance. They are asking whether the environment in which gold is produced, refined, and exported can consistently enforce it.

This shift is redefining how credibility is earned and reshaping where infrastructure must be built.SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is aligning its precious-metals strategy with that reality.

Putting Extra Shine on Gold

Following its engagement with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, the company has moved rapidly into jurisdiction-anchored initiatives, including its newest collaborations with Bougainville Refinery Ltd and digital identity provider FinGo.

The objective is not limited to certifying individual transactions. It is to evaluate how advanced authentication and identity infrastructure can be embedded directly into national-scale supply-chain operations, where enforcement actually matters.

The distinction is critical.

Company-level compliance can be fragmented. Jurisdiction-level infrastructure creates consistency. When verification systems are embedded where sourcing, refining, and export intersect, trust becomes systemic rather than discretionary.

SMX’s role in this transition begins with the material itself. Its molecular-level authentication technology embeds a persistent, invisible identity directly into gold, creating a physical-digital link that survives refining and downstream processing. This ensures that gold remains verifiable regardless of ownership changes or processing stages, a prerequisite for jurisdiction-wide enforcement.

More Than the Sum of Its Parts

TrueGold, a majority-owned subsidiary of SMX, builds on this foundation by positioning verified gold as a distinct, compliant asset class. In a market where regulators and counterparties increasingly differentiate between documented claims and demonstrable proof, this distinction gives jurisdictions a mechanism to offer gold that carries trusted identity by design, not by assertion.

Human identity completes the framework. Jurisdictional trust does not rest solely on material integrity. It depends on accountability across the people who extract, aggregate, refine, and export gold. FinGo’s biometric digital identity infrastructure enables verified attribution of actions and custody changes to real individuals aligned with KYC and AML expectations, including in environments where traditional identity systems are limited or unreliable.

By linking verified humans to verified material at each supply-chain event, the system creates records that withstand scrutiny across borders. This is precisely what jurisdictional credibility requires.

Bougainville Refinery Ltd provides the operational context that elevates the initiative beyond concept. As a licensed refinery and exporter, BRL operates at the point where national policy meets international markets. Embedding SMX and FinGo technologies into real sourcing, refining, and export workflows demonstrates how jurisdictions can operationalize transparency rather than merely legislate it.

A Strategic, Collaborative Effort

The broader implication is strategic. Gold markets are increasingly rewarding environments that can deliver consistency, auditability, and trust at scale. Jurisdictions that can offer verifiable supply chains reduce risk for refiners, financiers, and end markets alike. Those who cannot face growing friction.

SMX’s sequencing reflects an understanding of this shift. Alignment with global market authorities first. Deployment within operational jurisdictions next. Replication as credibility compounds. This is how standards are set in practice, not by decree, but by adoption.

Gold has always been a global asset. Increasingly, it is also a geopolitical one. The future of trusted gold will be shaped not only by companies that comply, but by jurisdictions that can prove it.

By enabling material identity, human accountability, and auditable operations at scale, SMX is positioning itself at the intersection where technology meets sovereignty, and where trust becomes infrastructure.

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

This information contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ: SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments; market demand for authenticated recycled content; the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology; global economic conditions; supply chain constraints; evolving environmental policies; and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 23, 2025 / The digital revolution promised transparency for commodities. Gold proved that the endpoint was more difficult to reach through pure ambition.

The problem was never the ledger. It was the inputs. Since the start of the digital age, the gold industry has experimented with digital traceability systems designed to modernize how provenance and custody are recorded. Distributed ledgers, tokens, and digital certificates were introduced with the promise of immutable truth.

Yet in practice, many of these systems simply preserved uncertainty in a more sophisticated format. When unverifiable material, anonymous handlers, and paper-based custody records feed a digital system, the output is still guesswork, just harder to unwind.

SMX Unites to Create Infrastructure, Not More Paperwork

That failure has forced a deeper architectural rethink. Transparency in gold does not begin with databases or digital ledgers. It begins with identity, both of the material itself and the humans who extract, handle, refine, and move it. Without those anchors, no amount of digitization can produce trust.

This is the context in which SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is emerging as one of the more aggressive builders of a new identity stack for precious metals.

Following its work with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, SMX announced a joint initiative with Bougainville Refinery Ltd and biometric identity provider FinGo. The focus is end-to-end authentication across gold sourcing, refining, and export, not as a theoretical exercise, but inside live supply-chain environments already subject to international scrutiny. The emphasis is not on tokenization or abstract traceability layers. It is on binding reality to record.

Where Identity Gets Verified, Not Presumed

SMX’s contribution operates at the material layer, where most digital systems quietly fail. Its molecular authentication technology embeds a persistent, invisible identity directly into gold itself. Once applied, that identity survives refining and downstream processing, allowing the material to be verified repeatedly without altering industrial workflows. This directly addresses one of the gold market’s most persistent vulnerabilities: identity loss once material enters the refinery and aggregation stages.

By anchoring identity to the physical metal, SMX removes reliance on external documentation to assert provenance or authenticity. The gold becomes its own proof.

FinGo addresses the other half of the equation, one that has historically been even harder to solve. Gold does not move itself. People do. Across global supply chains, particularly in artisanal and small-scale mining environments, identity is often informal, shared, or paper-based. That creates gaps that regulators, financiers, and counterparties increasingly refuse to overlook.

FinGo’s biometric digital identity infrastructure enables the verified attribution of actions and custody changes to real individuals, aligned with KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) expectations. Importantly, it’s deployable in environments where traditional identity systems break down, including remote regions with limited infrastructure. This capability transforms compliance records from descriptive narratives into defensible event histories.

A More Valuable Sum of the Parts

When combined, SMX and FinGo create something most digital-based systems never achieved: a direct link between a verified asset and a verified human at a specific moment in time. That linkage fundamentally changes the evidentiary quality of supply-chain data.

Bougainville Refinery Ltd provides the operational framework where these capabilities are tested under real pressure. As a licensed refinery and exporter, BRL sits at the convergence point of sourcing, compliance, and access to international markets. Embedding identity infrastructure at this level moves transparency out of policy documents and into daily operations, where credibility is earned through performance, not intention.

What makes this development notable is momentum. SMX is not positioning itself as a future solution waiting for regulation to mandate adoption. It is inserting identity infrastructure directly into supply chains that already face tightening AML, responsible sourcing, and ESG expectations. The sequencing matters. Framework alignment first. Operational deployment next. Replication thereafter.

The next generation of commodity transparency will not be won by platforms competing for visibility. It will be won by systems that anchor truth at the physical and human layers. Only then do ledgers, analytics, and reporting tools become meaningful. This latest SMX collaboration moves that reality from theory into execution, and it is doing so faster than the market expected.

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

This information contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ:SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments; market demand for authenticated recycled content; the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology; global economic conditions; supply chain constraints; evolving environmental policies; and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 22, 2025 / For much of its history, compliance in the gold industry lived at the end of the process. Gold was sourced, refined, and traded first. Documentation followed. Audits came later. Trust was assumed unless challenged.

That model is no longer holding.

Across global gold markets, regulatory expectations have moved upstream. Responsible sourcing, AML, and ESG frameworks now demand proof that originates at the point of extraction and persists through every handoff. Compliance is no longer something that can be reconstructed after the fact. It must be engineered directly into operations.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is serving that reality. More importantly, delivering it.

Deals on Top of Deals to Create a New Gold Standard

Following its engagement with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, SMX has moved quickly to deploy its physical-to-digital authentication framework inside live supply chains through initiatives with Bougainville Refinery Ltd and digital identity provider FinGo. In parallel, the company continues to advance its majority-owned trueGold platform, designed to preserve identity, provenance, and compliance through refining and trade.

The common thread is clear. SMX is treating compliance not as a reporting obligation, but as operational infrastructure. The very thing that global industries are no longer just asking for, but increasingly required to implement.

Traditional compliance systems struggle because they sit downstream from risk. Paper documentation can be altered. Digital records can reflect assumptions rather than facts. By the time discrepancies surface, material has already moved, been aggregated, or entered the market.

SMX addresses this failure at the material level. Its molecular authentication technology embeds an invisible, persistent identity directly into gold itself. That identity survives refinement and downstream processing, enabling verification at multiple operational checkpoints without reliance on reconciliation or manual intervention. With SMX, compliance becomes continuous rather than episodic.

Why SMX Has Become So Relevant

Gold’s highest-risk moments occur during handoffs. Aggregation points. Refinery intake. Export authorization. These are operational events, not accounting exercises. Systems that activate only during audits arrive too late.

trueGold extends this approach by framing verified gold as an operationally compliant asset rather than a post-hoc certified one. Gold that carries persistent identity and auditable history is easier to finance, easier to clear, and easier to accept across jurisdictions tightening their sourcing standards.

The human dimension of compliance is equally critical. Many of gold’s failures stem not from material substitution, but from unverifiable actors. Shared credentials. Informal identification. Gaps between who is recorded and who actually handled the gold.

FinGo’s biometric digital identity infrastructure closes that gap. By enabling verified attribution of actions and custody changes to real individuals aligned with KYC and AML expectations, FinGo allows compliance to operate where it breaks down, at the human interface. This is especially relevant in remote and infrastructure-limited environments, where traditional identity systems are unreliable or absent.

When combined, SMX and FinGo shift compliance from policy to practice. Each custody event links a verified human to a verified asset at a specific moment. Records no longer describe what should have happened. They document what did happen.

Bougainville Refinery Ltd provides the operational context that makes this shift meaningful. As a licensed refinery and exporter, BRL operates at the convergence point of sourcing, compliance, and international market access. Embedding identity infrastructure into refinery and export workflows demonstrates how compliance can be enforced continuously without slowing trade.

Not an Exercise, a Construction Project

The key point is this. These actions are not theoretical. They represent a model for how jurisdictions and supply-chain operators can modernize compliance without relying on punitive enforcement or retroactive audits. By placing verification where gold is actually handled, compliance becomes a function of operations rather than paperwork.

The broader implication is acceleration. Rather than waiting for regulators to mandate new systems, SMX is deploying infrastructure that anticipates where standards are heading. In markets where counterparties increasingly demand evidence instead of assurances, that positioning matters.

Compliance is no longer a back-office function. It is becoming frontline infrastructure. And the companies building it into the physical reality of gold will shape how trust is enforced in the next phase of global precious metals trade.

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

This information contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ: SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments; market demand for authenticated recycled content; the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology; global economic conditions; supply chain constraints; evolving environmental policies; and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 22, 2025 / For centuries, gold’s value rested on weight, purity, and trust. In modern markets, those attributes are no longer sufficient on their own. Gold is increasingly being treated not just as a commodity, but as a regulated data asset, one whose market acceptance depends as much on verifiable provenance, custody, and compliance as on chemical composition.

That shift is happening faster than many expected, and SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) is not simply participating in it, but emerging as one of the sector’s most recognized providers of verifiable proof. In other words, in the right place at the right time.

Across global gold markets, regulators and counterparties are no longer satisfied with attestations and paper trails. They want persistent proof. The result is a structural change in how gold must be authenticated, tracked, and verified across its lifecycle. Gold without verifiable identity increasingly faces friction. Gold with embedded, auditable identity gains optionality.

Momentum Behind a Sector Shift

SMX’s recent momentum across the precious-metals sector reflects a clear understanding of that inflection point.

Following its engagement with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, SMX has expanded its physical-to-digital authentication framework into operational supply chains through its newest initiative with Bougainville Refinery Ltd and biometric identity provider FinGo. In parallel, the company has continued to advance trueGold, its verified gold platform designed to preserve identity, provenance, and integrity through refining, custody, and trade.

Together, these efforts point to a consistent strategy. SMX is not treating gold traceability as a reporting layer. It is treating gold itself as a data-bearing asset.

At the foundation of that approach is SMX’s molecular-level authentication technology. By embedding an invisible, persistent identifier directly into gold, SMX creates a physical-digital link that survives refining and downstream processing. Once applied, the gold can be verified repeatedly without reliance on external documentation. Identity travels with the metal.

Unrivaled Critical Persistence

That persistence is critical. One of the gold market’s long-standing vulnerabilities has been identity loss once material enters industrial workflows. Bars are melted. Lots are aggregated. Documentation is reconciled after the fact. SMX removes that fragility by ensuring the material itself remains verifiable throughout its lifecycle.

trueGold builds on this capability by positioning verified gold as a distinct asset class, one that carries trusted metadata alongside its physical form, better serving a market increasingly shaped by responsible sourcing frameworks, AML expectations, and ESG scrutiny. That distinction matters. Verified gold is not simply compliant. It is legible to regulators, financiers, and counterparties in a way unverified material is not.

Human identity completes the equation. Gold does not move autonomously. It is extracted, handled, refined, and exported by people. FinGo’s biometric digital identity infrastructure enables those actions to be attributed to verified individuals aligned with KYC and AML requirements, even in environments where traditional identity systems struggle. When combined with SMX’s material identity, each custody event links a verified human to a verified asset at a specific moment in time.

This convergence transforms compliance from narrative to evidence by Bougainville Refinery Ltd providing a real-world proving ground where these systems are evaluated under live operational conditions. As a licensed refinery and exporter, BRL represents the point where sourcing, compliance, and international market access intersect. Embedding identity infrastructure at this level demonstrates how jurisdictions can modernize gold supply chains without sacrificing efficiency or inclusion.

Global Implications, All Positive

The broader implication extends beyond Bougainville. Gold markets are moving toward a model where value increasingly reflects not just what gold is, but what can be proven about it. Jurisdictions and market participants that can offer verifiable identity, custody, and compliance gain strategic advantage.

SMX’s accelerating activity across gold, from DMCC alignment to jurisdiction-level deployment and the expansion of TrueGold, suggests the company is not waiting for this shift to crystallize. It is building for it now.

Gold is still gold. But the markets that trade it are changing. Increasingly, the most valuable gold will be the gold that can speak for itself.

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

This information contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ: SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments; market demand for authenticated recycled content; the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology; global economic conditions; supply chain constraints; evolving environmental policies; and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / December 22, 2025 / For years, transparency in the global gold market advanced in theory faster than in practice. Standards evolved. Guidance tightened. And, expectations rose. Yet the most important part, implementation, lagged, constrained by fragmented systems that verified paperwork more easily than reality. That gap is now closing, and it is closing quickly.

SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) deserves some credit. It’s emerging as one of the most active drivers of that shift. Following its engagement with the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, SMX is extending its physical-to-digital authentication framework into operational supply chains through a new joint initiative with FinGo and Bougainville Refinery Ltd. Together, the partners are evaluating a combined technology architecture designed to authenticate gold from mine and miner through refinery and export, embedding verification directly into live workflows rather than treating compliance as a tagged afterthought.

The pace matters. Historically, changes in the precious metals sector unfolded over decades. SMX technology changes that timeline, fast-tracking framework alignment to real-world deployment in rapid succession. It’s not just signaling progress. It’s demonstrating that material identity and supply-chain verification are transitioning from discussion to infrastructure.

From Market Frameworks to Operational Reality

The issue has never been a lack of good intentions. The global gold industry has spent years refining rules and standards to manage its complexity. The challenge has been the absence of tools capable of implementing those standards consistently across borders and participants. Fragmentation has always been the enemy.

Guidance from the London Bullion Market Association, the World Gold Council, and the DMCC increasingly demands demonstrable provenance, auditable custody, and verifiable compliance across the gold lifecycle. Yet these frameworks often operate in parallel, relying on different processes and oversight models. What SMX has been proving is that these requirements can converge operationally rather than compete administratively.

That results from SMX’s technology addressing shared requirements at the material level. Through molecular-level authentication, gold can be invisibly and permanently marked, creating a persistent, immutable physical-digital link that remains intact through refining and downstream processing. Once embedded, the material itself becomes verifiable, reducing reliance on external documentation to establish authenticity or origin.

All of that is great. But equally important, and what distinguishes SMX’s recent momentum, is how quickly this capability is being paired with operational partners and regulatory environments. The initiative with Bougainville Refinery Ltd reflects a deliberate move to take material authentication out of controlled environments and into national-scale supply chains, where credibility is earned through use, not assertion. This mirrors the trajectory of national frameworks unfolding in markets such as Singapore and Dubai.

Solving the Human Dimension of Compliance

Keep in mind that gold’s identity challenge has never been limited to the metal alone. The people who extract, handle, aggregate, refine, and export gold represent equally critical points of risk when identity cannot be confidently established. Shared credentials, paper IDs, and informal verification processes have long undermined otherwise well-intentioned compliance frameworks.

FinGo’s biometric digital identity platform addresses this human layer directly. By enabling verified identity aligned with KYC and AML requirements, the technology allows actions and custody changes to be attributed to real, authenticated individuals, even in remote or infrastructure-limited environments. This capability transforms supply-chain records from narrative descriptions into defensible event histories.

When combined with SMX’s material identity, each supply-chain event links a verified human to a verified asset at a specific moment in time. For regulators, financiers, and counterparties, that linkage represents a meaningful step change in evidentiary quality. The value chain becomes stronger, more legible, and more resilient.

Bougainville as a Proof Point for Scalable Transparency

Bougainville Refinery Ltd provides the operational context that turns theory into practice. As a licensed refinery and export participant, BRL will evaluate how the integrated framework performs across real sourcing, refining, and export workflows, embedding authentication and identity verification directly into day-to-day operations.

The initiative aligns with Bougainville’s broader commitment to responsible resource management and transparency. More importantly, it positions Bougainville as a reference environment for how advanced verification infrastructure can be deployed at a jurisdictional level, supporting both economic participation and international trust.

For SMX, this reflects a clear and repeatable strategy. First, align with global market authorities and frameworks. Next, demonstrate operational viability in real supply chains. Then, scale through replication.

A Sector Moving From Intention to Infrastructure

Don’t underappreciate what’s happening here. The speed at which SMX is executing across the precious metals space is notable. More importantly, these collaborations reflect a broader shift underway in global markets, showing that responsible sourcing, AML, and ESG are no longer treated as parallel efforts. They are converging on a single expectation and a single deliverable: proof.

By embedding material-level authentication, verified human identity, and auditable digital records into live supply-chain environments, SMX and its partners are delivering exactly that. The collaboration leaves no room for abstraction, signaling that infrastructure is not being discussed, it is being built.

Solutions that can move from policy alignment to operational deployment will define the next phase of trade. SMX’s recent momentum, with help from valuable players, suggests that phase is arriving faster than many anticipated.

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

This information contains forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and assumptions regarding future events involving SMX (NASDAQ:SMX), its technologies, its partnership activities, and its development of molecular marking systems for recycled PET and other materials. Forward looking statements are not historical facts. They involve risks, uncertainties, and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Forward looking statements in this editorial include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding the integration of SMX’s molecular markers into U.S. recycling markets; the potential for FDA-compliant markers to enable recycled PET to enter food-grade and other regulated applications; the scalability of SMX solutions across diverse global supply chains; anticipated adoption of identity-based verification systems by manufacturers, recyclers, regulators, or brand owners; the potential economic impact of turning recycled plastics into tradeable or monetizable assets; the expected performance of SMX’s Plastic Cycle Token or other digital verification instruments; and the belief that molecular-level authentication may influence pricing, compliance, sustainability reporting, or financial strategies used within the plastics sector.

These forward looking statements are also subject to assumptions regarding regulatory developments; market demand for authenticated recycled content; the pace of corporate adoption of traceability technology; global economic conditions; supply chain constraints; evolving environmental policies; and general industry behavior relating to sustainability commitments and recycling mandates. Risks include, but are not limited to, changes in FDA or international regulatory standards; technological challenges in large-scale deployment of molecular markers; competitive innovations from other companies; operational disruptions in recycling or plastics manufacturing; fluctuations in pricing for virgin or recycled plastics; and the broader economic conditions that influence capital investment and industrial activity.

Detailed risk factors are described in SMX’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of publication. SMX undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward looking statements to reflect subsequent events, changes in circumstances, or new information, except as required by applicable law.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

SMX, FinGo & Bougainville Refinery Ltd to Deliver Verifiable Identification for Gold

NEW YORK, NY; PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND LONDON, GB / ACCESS Newswire / December 22, 2025 / SMX (Security Matters) PLC (NASDAQ:SMX; SMXWW), a leader in physical-to-digital authentication and traceability technology, today announced a joint initiative with FinGo, a secure digital identity provider, and Bougainville Refinery Ltd (BRL) to evaluate a combined technology framework for authenticating the gold supply chain from mine and miner through refinery and export.
The initiative reflects a shared objective to establish Bougainville as a global reference point for transparent, responsible, and technology-enabled gold trade, demonstrating how advanced authentication and digital identity infrastructure can be embedded at a national supply-chain level.

The parties will assess the deployment of an integrated material and human verification platform designed to deliver traceability, auditability, and transparency across the entire gold value chain. It brings together SMX’s molecular-level gold authentication, FinGo’s biometric digital identity and KYC/AML infrastructure, and BRL’s operational, compliance, and export capabilities as a licensed gold refinery and supply-chain operator.

Authenticating Both the Metal and the Human

The joint initiative addresses a challenge in global precious-metals markets: the ability to verifiably authenticate both the physical gold and the individuals handling it, in a manner that meets applicable regulatory, compliance, and ESG requirements.

SMX’s proprietary technology enables gold to be invisibly and permanently authenticated at the material level, creating a secure physical-digital link that remains intact through refining and downstream processing. This material identity is anchored to a tamper-resistant digital record, enabling continuous verification, auditability, and provenance assurance.

FinGo complements this capability through its Human Identity-as-a-Service (HIDaaS) platform, providing biometric identity verification, KYC/AML alignment, and secure authorization of individuals operating across the supply chain from miners and aggregators to refinery personnel and export counterparties. This is designed to enable actions, custody changes, and transactions to be confidently attributed to verified individuals, including in remote or infrastructure-limited environments.

Leveraging BRL’s Operations and Bougainville’s Commitment to Transparency

Bougainville Refinery Ltd brings established refinery operations, export workflows, and regulatory compliance processes into the initiative. BRL’s role is to operationally integrate SMX and FinGo technologies within real-world gold sourcing, refining, and export environments, with a goal to strengthen chain-of-custody integrity while supporting robust AML, KYC, and responsible-sourcing standards.

SMX believes that the joint initiative both aligns with the Bougainville Government’s stated commitment to responsible resource management and the use of advanced technologies to enhance transparency, trust, and economic participation across the gold value chain, as well as demonstrates how public-private partnerships can embed next-generation compliance and traceability infrastructure directly into national supply-chain operations.

Together, the initiative has been designed to evaluate how an integrated framework can enhance:

• End-to-end provenance and chain-of-custody assurance from mine to export

• Alignment with international KYC/AML, responsible-sourcing, and ESG standards

• Digitised, auditable compliance records for regulators, counterparties, and financiers

• Reduced reliance on manual, paper-based verification processes

Aligning with Global Gold Market Standards and Responsible Sourcing Framework

The initiative is aligned with the direction set by leading global gold-market bodies, including the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), and the World Gold Council, to advance transparency, responsible sourcing, and robust chain-of-custody expectations across international precious-metals markets.

As regulators, refiners, and market participants face requirements to demonstrate compliance with responsible gold guidance, AML/KYC obligations, and ESG frameworks, the initiative is being designed to evaluate how physical-to-digital authentication and biometric identity infrastructure can act as practical, scalable enablers of these global standards.

By embedding material-level gold authentication, verified human identity, and auditable digital records directly into supply-chain operations, the initiative is being designed to represent a concrete step toward supporting the objectives articulated in LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance, DMCC sourcing and compliance frameworks, and World Gold Council principles strengthening trust, accountability, and consistency across global gold markets.

Setting a Global Benchmark for Responsible Gold Trade

Beyond the single deployment expected in the initiative by the parties, it is intended to serve as a reference model for how jurisdictions can modernise gold supply chains, balancing commercial efficiency with transparency, accountability, and inclusion.

By combining material-level authentication, biometric human identity, and operational supply-chain controls, the initiative aims to demonstrate how next-generation physical-to-digital infrastructure can underpin trusted gold markets not only for Bougainville, but as a replicable framework for governments, refiners, and exporters globally.

SMX believes that the initiative represents what is possible when government commitment, operational capability, and advanced technology converge: a supply-chain environment where miners, refiners, regulators, financiers, and end-markets can participate with confidence, even amid the complexity of global precious-metals trade.

Executive Commentary Jonathan Kenneth, Director, Bougainville Refinery Ltd, said: “This initiative will evaluate the ability to support miners, gold dealers and the Bougainville Government with genuine end-to-end transparency across the gold supply chain. By combining advanced authentication and digital identity technologies, the refinery believes that it can assist in stronger resource management, clearer custodial ownership, and compliance with global best-practice frameworks aligned with the World Gold Council, LBMA, and DMCC. This is an exciting time for Bougainville as we continue to progress toward a more transparent, responsible, and internationally trusted gold industry.”

Bottom of Form

For further information contact:

SMX GENERAL ENQUIRIES	Follow us through our social channel @secmattersltd
E: info@securitymattersltd.com	@smx.tech

About Bougainville Refinery Ltd (BRL)

Bougainville Refinery Ltd is a gold refinery and supply-chain operator focused on compliant sourcing, refining, and export of precious metals. BRL operates with a strong emphasis on regulatory compliance, responsible sourcing, and transparent supply-chain operations.

About FinGo

FinGo is a digital identity company providing secure, biometric-based identity verification through its VeinID technology. FinGo’s Human Identity-as-a-Service platform enables privacy-preserving KYC, authentication, and transaction authorization across complex and remote supply chains.

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: 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; 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.

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 17, 2025 / SMX’s violent move was never about price charts. It was about a thesis. And how SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) knows it can work.

Transparency without reliance on trust. Verification without intermediaries. Systems that function on proof rather than belief. For more than a decade, global markets have talked about delivering that vision at scale. Countless frameworks, standards, and reporting regimes later, the ambition remains intact, but execution has struggled to escape theory.

That is where SMX enters the conversation. Not as a digital platform chasing attention. But rather a physical verification system that delivers something markets have been missing for years. Verifiable truth (PROOF) that does not depend on declarations, paperwork, or centralized assurances. This time, the verification happens where it always mattered most, in the physical economy.

The Missing Link Markets Could Never Solve on Paper

Digital systems are excellent at preserving records. They are far less effective at validating inputs. That has always been the blind spot. Whether the issue is supply chains, sustainability claims, or material provenance, the weakness has never been recordkeeping. It has been origin. If the data entering a system cannot be independently verified, transparency becomes performative.

SMX addresses that gap by assigning identity at the material level. Plastics, metals, textiles, and other physical inputs carry embedded verification. The data recorded downstream is no longer a claim. It is a reflection of something that can be tested, traced, and proven in the real world.

This is the bridge modern markets needed but could not construct on their own.

Transparency Without Theater

Markets claim to dislike middlemen, yet they have quietly tolerated substitutes. Auditors. Certifiers. Validators. Each one reintroduces dependence on third parties, even when systems claim objectivity.

SMX removes that dependency by making the material itself the source of truth. Verification is not applied after the fact. It exists from inception. That single shift changes the entire trust model.

Instead of asking whether information can be trusted, the system assumes it must be proven. That mindset aligns with how capital actually moves. No persuasion required when the system enforces reality.

The Plastic Cycle Token Is Utility, Not Narrative

Discussion often turns to the Plastic Cycle Token, and this is where confusion tends to arise.

The Plastic Cycle Token is not designed to generate attention or be treated as a meme token. It is designed to price verification. It creates a measurable, transferable unit tied to provable circularity rather than aspirational sustainability.

Functionally, it operates as a settlement instrument for verified outcomes. It assigns value to results that can be independently confirmed. It does not exist to convince markets. It exists to resolve them.

That distinction matters in an environment saturated with claims that collapse under scrutiny.

Why This Resonates With Market Veterans

Experienced market participants have long understood a simple truth. Transparency without enforcement is cosmetic.

SMX introduces enforcement without centralized control. Identity is not governed by authority. It is embedded in the object itself. Participation does not rely on belief. It relies on compliance with physical reality.

That is why SMX feels intuitive to those who have seen cycles come and go. Verification beats reputation. Proof beats promise. Systems outperform stories.

In an unexpected way, SMX validates what markets have always demanded but rarely received.

Physical Truth Meets Digital Settlement

For years, industries have tried to digitize everything from commodities to environmental credits. Most efforts stalled because the underlying assets were never verifiable at the source.

SMX changes that equation. When physical materials carry identity, digital settlement becomes functional instead of theoretical. Records gain meaning because what they represent can be tested and enforced.

This extends far beyond plastics. Metals. Textiles. Industrial inputs. Anywhere provenance matters and trust has historically been assumed rather than proven.

Markets do not need more abstractions. They need better anchors to reality.

Why Markets Paid Attention So Quickly

SMX’s recent market activity attracted attention across multiple sectors. The movement itself is not the story. The reason behind it is.

Markets do not reprice ideology. They reprice utility. When a system appears that delivers verification at scale, incentives align rapidly. Regulation, enterprise adoption, and capital markets are converging on the same solution.

Infrastructure does not arrive gradually. It arrives all at once, and markets move fast to adjust.

SMX did not chase acceptance. It delivered outcomes and let the system speak.

A Quiet Victory for First Principles

Now, within a landscape crowded with narratives, SMX represents something rare. A system that does not need one. It does not argue for transparency. It enforces it. It does not promise trust. It removes the need for it. It does not rely on belief. It relies on proof.

What SMX has built is not a narrative upgrade. It is a structural correction. When systems stop debating trust and start enforcing proof, markets respond accordingly. In this case, markets and stakeholders appear to like what they see. Or better said, have tested and validated.

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 / 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