The Albany Gazette - SMX, its PCT, and the Proof Premium: Why Markets Are Valuing Verified Materials Like a Financial Asset

When a material carries verified history, verified recovery, and verified reentry, it begins to claim something the market has never priced into supply chains before. It earns a proof premium. Investors across multiple sectors are beginning to recognize that this shift is not conceptual or futuristic. It is already taking shape around SMX's Plastic Cycle Token (PCT).

Physical to Digital

For decades, the physical economy relied on assumptions. Manufacturers depended on supplier declarations with inconsistent oversight. Recyclers submitted volume reports that were difficult to validate beyond broad sampling. Brands relied on audits that varied in rigor depending on region, standards, and budget. These systems created a world built on approximations rather than certainties, and markets had no mechanism to reward accuracy or penalize ambiguity.

SMX changed that baseline by introducing molecular-level verification technology that gives every material a persistent identity throughout its lifecycle. It turns materials into traceable entities. Once the PCT expresses those events digitally, something new enters the market. Recovery is no longer an unpriced event. Certified content is no longer a grey zone. Proof becomes a measurable economic characteristic.

This is why interest in SMX continues to build. The PCT does not ask investors to imagine theoretical outcomes. It provides verified events that can be treated as market-ready units. A verified recovery is not comparable to an unverified recovery. A verified origin is not the same as a declared origin. These distinctions matter because markets reward certainty.

Stakeholders understand the logic intuitively. When ambiguity shrinks, value grows. SMX is not creating a token trend. It is creating a truth-driven environment where verified materials can assume financial relevance for the first time.

Aligning PROOF with the New World Economy

The momentum around SMX is driven by alignment between physical truth, proof, and digital markets. With the PCT, markets do not rely on sustainability reports, projections, or claims that cannot be independently validated. They are responding to data embedded inside the material itself.

For years, markets have tried to price sustainability, responsible sourcing, and circularity, yet none of those categories came with verifiable inputs. The PCT changes that. It provides an infrastructure where proof becomes the foundation for digital representation. That shift is why this concept is sticking with both traditional investors and digital asset participants.

What SMX built addresses a deeper need within the global economy. As supply chains become more complex, brands and regulators require higher levels of accuracy. Investors want transparency because transparency reduces risk. The PCT satisfies both expectations. It gives markets a way to measure what was once unverifiable. It allows companies to demonstrate performance instead of stating it. It enables materials to carry their own evidence rather than relying on third-party interpretation.

Proof has always been a form of currency in serious markets. SMX created the mechanism that allows that currency to move from the physical world into the digital one. As more participants understand the implications, the concept of a proof premium becomes harder to ignore. Verified materials are no longer just components in a supply chain. They are emerging as assets with definable economic identity. That realization is shaping how markets view SMX and why interest surrounding the PCT continues to rise.

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: [email protected]

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

(S.Perez--TAG)