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