NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / December 3, 2025 / The first shots of the new gold war were never fired. They were forged. Recast. Relabeled. Smuggled. Hidden under layers of paperwork that no longer reflect the reality of modern bullion markets. The world still treats gold as the purest expression of financial certainty, yet the truth is far darker. Gold is now one of the easiest materials on earth to counterfeit, misdeclare, or launder across borders. And the global financial system is sleepwalking straight into a trust crisis because it keeps pretending the problem does not exist.

The gold war isn't about price. It is about provenance. It is a silent conflict between nations that can prove the gold they trade, and nations still relying on outdated documentation that collapses the moment a bar is melted. The winners will be the markets that adopt verifiable bullion, not the ones that cling to trust.

SMX (NASDAQ: SMX) walked directly into this fractured ecosystem with a technology that shifts the balance of power. It gives gold something the industry has never possessed at scale. It gives the metal a molecular identity that survives every transformation. Melt it. Recast it. Split it. Ship it. Vault it. The identity stays. The truth stays. In short, the market finally knows what it's buying.

And with SMX's new $111.5 million equity purchase agreement (EPA), that identity system now has the runway to deploy across the global precious metals landscape at industrial speed.

The Gold Market's Blind Spot Has Become a Strategic Liability

Most investors do not know how vulnerable the gold market has become. Legacy verification depends on stamping, serial numbers, and certificates that can be forged, swapped, or duplicated. Bars move through refiners, logistics hubs, free zones, and vaults with almost no persistent identity. Once a bar loses its physical mark or enters a melting pot, its origin is lost forever. In a market where billions move on trust, that blind spot is not a weakness. It is an opening.

Criminal networks exploit that opening. Sanctioned gold exploits it. Illicit mining operations exploit it. Even reputable refiners struggle to validate the authenticity of incoming supply. Banks and exchanges assume purity because they have no choice. But assumptions are not infrastructure, and eventually the system fails.

It doesn't need to. SMX can turn those vulnerabilities into forensic checkpoints. Its molecular markers are embedded within the metal itself, creating an identity that cannot be washed off, filed away, duplicated, or counterfeited at scale. This is how the gold war shifts. Proof becomes the primary weapon.

DMCC, Goldstrom, and the Rise of Verified Gold Power Centers

Dubai's DMCC has already started building the world's first verification-first gold ecosystem. Goldstrom, one of the region's most advanced refiners, is among the early adopters embracing SMX-level identity as a competitive weapon. The moment gold carries a persistent molecular fingerprint, shadow supply chains lose their camouflage. Gold that once hid inside opaque documentation now reveals its full history with a single scan.

This is not theory. It is already happening. The shift is accelerating because the incentives are undeniable. Verified gold commands higher premiums. Verified gold moves faster across borders. Verified gold carries lower regulatory risk. And it's causing a two-tier market to form: gold with identity and gold without it.

Only one side will win.

SMX's $111.5 Million EPA Turns Proof Into a Global Standard

The EPA changes everything. SMX now has access to the capitalization to scale verification across refiners, vaults, logistics hubs, sovereign buyers, and bullion banks. This is no longer a boutique technology. It is verification infrastructure with global reach. And in the gold war, infrastructure wins.

The world won't remember the price spikes, the trading volumes, or the market cycles. It will remember who solved the trust crisis before it detonated. Gold is entering the age of identity, and SMX is the company writing the rules.

Don't ignore the facts. The gold war has already started. And the side with proof will win.

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