NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 31, 2025 / Silver has never needed much attention to matter. It sits quietly inside the systems modern economies rely on: power generation, electronics, data infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing. That quiet importance is exactly why recent shifts in the silver market deserve a closer look.

Global silver supply chains are beginning to fragment. Not abruptly, and not catastrophically, but decisively. Fragmentation simply means that silver is no longer treated as a single, uniform global pool but as multiple parallel supply streams governed by different regulatory and commercial rules. As that shift takes hold, assumptions that once made the market efficient begin to lose their reliability.

China's role in this evolution is often highlighted for its scale, not for controversy. As one of the world's most influential silver processors and refiners, even incremental changes in oversight naturally ripple through global markets. Export licensing and tighter regulatory frameworks are not unusual when materials become strategically important. Similar dynamics would emerge if the United States applied comparable controls to semiconductors, aerospace alloys, or advanced battery materials.

The Weakness in Assumptions-Based Markets Exposed

The problem with the silver market is this: for decades, silver traded on assumptions that no longer hold. An ounce was an ounce. Refiners were trusted. Documentation was enough. Markets moved efficiently because they believed they could. That belief was not naïve; it was simply untested by geopolitical pressure.

Once geopolitics enters the equation, those assumptions erode. Export licenses do not apply evenly. Compliance scrutiny varies by jurisdiction. End-use controls introduce distinctions that paperwork struggles to keep up with. Supply chains that once felt interchangeable become tiered.

Tiered markets reward verification. That's starting to show, with buyers responding differently to markets. Instead of treating silver as a single global commodity, industrial users are beginning to assess it by source, processing path, and regulatory profile. The question is no longer how much silver costs, but which silver can move without friction.

This is where SMX (NASDAQ: SMX) fits with precision.

SMX Offers Tools Over Force

SMX does not attempt to force fragmented markets back into uniformity. It does not rely on centralized oversight or layered paperwork to smooth over differences. Instead, it allows market participants to navigate fragmentation with clarity.

By embedding molecular identifiers directly into silver, SMX enables each batch to carry its own history. Origin, processing pathway, compliance status, and custody trail travel with the metal itself. Verification does not depend on counterparties or documentation. It depends on the material.

In fragmented markets, that history determines access.

Now, as supply chains splinter, a new distinction emerges. Preferred silver. Not as a label, but as a qualification. Silver that clears customs without delay. Silver that satisfies regulators without negotiation. Silver that does not trigger financing questions or audit risk. It simply moves.

SMX makes that preference possible without slowing trade or inserting gatekeepers. The verification lives in the metal itself, allowing regulators, banks, and counterparties to get answers without friction. That's not all.

Fragmentation also accelerates pressure on recycling. As primary supply tightens, secondary silver flows increase. Without verification, recycled material introduces ambiguity that buyers and regulators increasingly reject. Claims become harder to validate, audits slow down, and risk builds quietly in the background. That need not be the case.

SMX Provides Immutable Identity

With SMX, recycled silver retains traceability. Virgin and secondary supply can be distinguished without guesswork or double-counting. This is not about sustainability branding or narrative alignment. It is about admissibility. Silver that cannot be qualified will not be welcomed into regulated supply chains, regardless of price.

Markets always assign premiums to certainty. In fragmented environments, certainty commands disproportionate value. That premium does not appear on a price chart immediately. It shows up in speed, financing terms, insurance costs, and access. Keep in mind, SMX does not create premiums by restricting supply. It enables them by reducing uncertainty. That distinction matters because it positions SMX to capitalize on open, inclusive silver markets rather than on artificial scarcity.

The long view is straightforward. Silver is not becoming rare. It is becoming regulated. Regulated materials do not move on trust. They move on proof. Supply chains that adapt early gain speed, credibility, and resilience. Those that do not slow down, even when the underlying demand remains strong.

SMX is not betting on fragmentation. However, it is built for it. And once fragmentation takes hold, markets will begin to reward proof over assumption, placing SMX technology exactly where the market, and all its players, need it.

About SMX

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

Forward-Looking Statements

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, its announced capital facility and its terms, 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