NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 11, 2025 / Some breakthroughs feel inevitable in hindsight. SMX's (NASDAQ:SMX) latest industrial pilot is one of those moments. The kind of shift that forces an industry to redraw the map overnight. Cotton has long had a traceability problem. Once fibers are shredded, blended, spun, and transformed into fabric, the paper trail collapses. Brands rely on declarations. Regulators rely on hope. Consumers rely on whatever the tag says.

SMX is bringing that era to an end.

Over several days inside a full-scale industrial environment, SMX proved it can take recycled cotton the moment it re-enters the value chain, mark it at the molecular level, and track that identity through every high-intensity transformation that normally erases history. Shredding. Spraying. Fiber opening. Carding. Yarn spinning. Fabric formation. Finishing. At every stage, the marker stayed stable, detectable, and scientifically verifiable.

This reads like a technical milestone, but it reaches far beyond technical. It is the first end-to-end demonstration that cotton can retain a permanent, machine-readable identity from the start of mechanical recycling through to the final textile. That unlocks something the sector has never had. Evidence. Proof that virgin and recycled fiber ratios match what is claimed. Proof that recycled percentages are real and not theoretical. Proof that origin declarations can finally shift from assumption to authentication.

Fashion Gets a Global Digital Passport

For the apparel industry, this strikes at the core of the supply chain challenge. Digital Product Passports are becoming mandatory across Europe and increasingly tied to market entry, tariff access, and ESG compliance. Anyone watching supply chain reform knows this shift is coming fast. Sustainability reporting is moving away from narrative language and toward measurable, verifiable data.

With this demonstration complete, SMX has supplied the measurement standard that fashion has been waiting for. And the benefits reach far beyond brands.

The pilot carries major implications for trade and compliance. Manufacturers and exporters gain regulator-ready evidence that supports preferential tariffs, reduced-duty corridors, and free-trade agreements where fiber origin determines eligibility. Customs authorities gain a scientific reference point rather than relying on paper-based systems vulnerable to misclassification. Brands gain what they have lacked for years: a tamper-resistant foundation that validates sustainability claims with confidence.

This is not about optics. It is about compliance, competitiveness, and credibility.

Molecular Markers Are in Fashion

SMX checks every box. Its molecular markers not only survive the journey from fiber to finishing but also generate the authenticated data required for Product Digital Passports across the EU, the US, and emerging Asian frameworks. Once that data exists, everything downstream accelerates. Automated documentation. Rapid provenance checks. Lower risk of delays. Reduced exposure to penalties. Direct access to incentives that require verifiable evidence.

Cotton now has an identity. And in modern supply chains, identity is currency.

With the full-chain validation complete, SMX is moving into commercial rollout. Apparel brands, recyclers, manufacturers, and global buyers now have a turnkey system to authenticate origin and recycled content at industrial scale. That positions SMX as the enabling infrastructure for a new class of premium, traceable textile products.

The world has been searching for a solution for years. SMX has been telling the market it had one. Now it has proved it. The company has demonstrated an end-to-end molecular marking system that can permanently shift the narrative around sustainable and circular textile manufacturing.

And this breakthrough arrives on the heels of others. SMX recently validated its ability to identify and separate plastics, precious metals, and computer hardware. Cotton now joins that list. Each new capability reinforces the same truth. Sustainability claims cannot rely on declarations any longer. They must rely on proof.

The implications of this demonstration reach as far as SMX's progress in plastics, metals, and rubber. The impact extends beyond reorganizing trillion-dollar markets. It supports fair trade, credible compliance, modern sustainability, and the economics of recycled content. In practical terms, it is another major win for SMX, for global stakeholders, and for the planet.

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

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