NEW YORK, NY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / October 20, 2025 / At Utah's White Mesa Mill, the smell of acid and ambition hangs in the air. Giant bags of monazite ore, each weighing more than a car, are stacked like silent weapons. Inside them sits the quiet fuel of the modern world, rare-earth elements that power everything from fighter jets and smartphones to wind turbines and electric cars.

This is the heart of a new kind of conflict, one where proof, not politics, decides who controls the future. And right now, SMX (NASDAQ:SMX) may be the company holding the codebook. Its molecular-marking technology is already being positioned as the missing infrastructure for a supply chain that has forgotten how to prove itself.

Because here's the truth no one wants to admit. The materials inside those vats are strategic, but their origins are still a mystery. Every drop of acid hissing through those pipes carries a story that no one can fully verify. Every ton of refined rare earths might be clean, or it might not be. No one really knows.

And that's the problem.

For decades, the world has traded on faith instead of fact. Shipments move on paperwork, not proof. A signature here, a stamp there, and everyone nods as if it's gospel. But no one really knows. Not governments, not corporations, not even the banks underwriting the entire system. Supply chains became stories we told ourselves because no one could see the truth.

A Global System Built to Fail

The United States used to own this game. It once led the world in mining and refining rare-earth materials. Then, sometime between deregulation and denial, it handed the keys to China in the name of efficiency. The result is stunning: according to CSIS.org, China now mines roughly 70% of the world's rare earths and controls about 90% of processing capacity.

That's not luck, it's strategy. While Beijing built infrastructure, the rest of us built spreadsheets. We optimized for margins, not sovereignty. Supply chains stretched so far across the planet that identity itself disappeared between ports. Materials could be mixed, relabeled, or laundered, and no one could prove otherwise.

When that illusion cracked under the weight of trade wars and export bans, it exposed an uncomfortable truth: global progress was built on a paper trail that no longer means anything.

JPMorgan Isn't Doing This to Be Nice

Even the financial giants can see it. JPMorgan Chase has recently pledged up to $10 billion to support industries linked to U.S. national security, including defense, energy, and critical minerals. CEO Jamie Dimon called it a national-security imperative, but let's be honest, this isn't charity. It's damage control.

When the world's largest bank starts acting like a defense contractor, it means the numbers don't add up anymore. Dimon's warning was blunt: the United States has become too dependent on unreliable sources for the raw materials that run its economy. Translation: the trust is gone. The paperwork that once kept trade moving now looks more like a liability ledger.

This isn't a patriotic flex; it's triage. Finance is following the proof, because proof is the only thing that still holds value.

Proof Is the Missing Infrastructure

That's where SMX fits like a keystone. Its molecular-marker technology embeds microscopic chemical tags directly into materials, from rubber and gold to timber, plastics, and now rare earths. Each tag acts like a digital passport, carrying its own record of origin, movement, and processing, readable in seconds.

If those monazite feedstocks at White Mesa carried SMX's signature, every ton could be traced from mine to refinery to manufacturer. Counterfeiting would vanish. Substitution would fail. Diversion would stop before it started.

This isn't a blockchain fantasy or a software patch; it's chemistry with a conscience. It seals the leaks that cost nations billions and quietly turn allies into dependents.

Here's the truth that no diplomat will say out loud. This isn't a battle between China and America. It's a crisis of confidence spanning every economy on Earth. Even as nations scramble to build their own refineries, they still depend on foreign reagents, machinery, and technicians. The same story repeats from Washington to Brussels to Seoul.

SMX's technology doesn't pick sides. It simply erases excuses. Proof isn't partisan, it's structural. It replaces faith with physics, and belief with measurable reality.

The World's Most Expensive Blind Spot

Governments and corporations are spending billions to rebuild rare-earth pipelines. The U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and banks are throwing capital at mines, refineries, and recycling hubs. Yet the core weakness remains: a global supply chain that can't verify itself.

That's the blind spot SMX was born to close. Its molecular-level tracking creates a universal language of authenticity. It works across borders, industries, and political alliances, providing the one thing no one else can: certainty. It's not a pitch deck or a pilot; it's already running in commercial markets across metals, minerals, and luxury goods.

By linking the physical world to a digital record of truth, SMX offers the kind of neutrality that diplomacy could never achieve. It allows nations to trade based on verified origin instead of ideology. The same system that has already traced natural rubber, precious metals, and timber is now being scaled to the rare earths that will define the next industrial age.

Proof Is Not the Future, It's the Firewall

At Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill, optimism runs hot. New mines are coming online, new magnet plants are being built, and the rhetoric around resource independence has never sounded stronger. But without verification, it's optimism built on sand. The system can't fix itself with the same paperwork that broke it.

JPMorgan's $10 billion pledge isn't a victory lap; it's an alarm. The arteries of global finance are still clogged with unverified flows, and the next major crisis might not start with bombs or markets-it could start with misinformation.

SMX has already built the antidote. It's a molecular truth system for a post-trust world, a technology that doesn't just report data but embeds honesty into the material itself. And it couldn't come at a more urgent time, because proof isn't patriotic. Proof isn't optional. Proof is survival.

The time to build it isn't tomorrow. It's now, while the world still has its chance to get it right.

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 gold, 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.

EMAIL: info@securitymattersltd.com

SOURCE: SMX (Security Matters)