NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 17, 2025 / The cannabis industry has evolved faster than the systems that support it. What began as a loosely regulated agricultural product has grown into a differentiated market spanning medical treatments, wellness products, and adult-use consumption. Yet much of the sector still relies on fragmented reporting, manual documentation, and trust-based declarations to explain what a product is and where it came from.

As expectations rise, that model no longer holds. Regulators want certainty. Growers want their quality recognized. Consumers want consistency. SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) addresses this gap by embedding verifiable identity directly into the supply chain, enabling cannabis to be documented from seed to sale without relying on assumptions or paper trails. Why is that important?

Differentiation Starts at the Seed

Because cannabis is no longer a one-size-fits-all crop. Different seeds are cultivated for medical versus recreational use, and within those categories, strains are designed for specific cannabinoid profiles, terpene compositions, and functional outcomes. That differentiation begins at the genetic level, and it only has value if it can be preserved through cultivation, processing, and distribution.

SMX's technology allows that identity to persist across those stages. Rather than treating cannabis as a generic commodity, each batch remains linked to its origin and intended purpose. For growers, this creates clarity. When producers know exactly what they have, decisions improve across the board. Processing methods become more precise. Labeling becomes more accurate. Quality shifts from assumption to something that can be measured and defended.

Integrity Enables Compliance and Closes Fragmentation

At that point, compliance becomes less complex. That's also important. Because as the cannabis trade expands across jurisdictions, things like tariffs, duties, and regulatory approvals come into play, with verifiable origin and documented movement also on the list. SMX can close those supply chain vulnerabilities.

Systems built on declarations introduce friction, delays, and risk. By providing a consistent and auditable source of truth, SMX simplifies verification for regulators and customs authorities. This same verification layer also helps address long-standing fragmentation within the cannabis sector.

Medical and recreational markets often operate under different standards despite sharing overlapping supply chains. SMX does not force uniformity. It allows differentiation to exist while ensuring each category can be validated on its own terms, reducing inefficiency without erasing purpose.

A Food-Grade Precedent and the Direction of the Market

This model is not theoretical. In third-party industry coverage, SMX's traceability technology has been discussed in the context of origin-sensitive agricultural commodities such as coffee. Like cannabis, coffee is quality-driven, globally traded, and subject to increasing scrutiny around sourcing and authenticity. The relevance lies in the ability to preserve identity from origin through processing using food-grade safe materials, without compromising safety or integrity.

That precedent matters. Cannabis increasingly demands the same rigor, not because of controversy, but because of value. As the sector continues to professionalize, verification will move from competitive advantage to baseline requirement. Seed-to-sale identity is not about control. It is about clarity. By embedding identity at the material level, SMX enables a more cohesive, accountable cannabis supply chain aligned with where the industry is already heading.

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