Abaxx bets on Asia’s growing silver demand with new Singapore futures contract

Kitco Media
By Neils Christensen
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Updated
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(Kitco News) - Growing investment demand, combined with solid industrial consumption, is driving a new evolution in the silver market, and one exchange is looking to capitalize on this trend as it pushes to make Singapore a global precious metals hub.

On Monday, Abaxx Technologies Inc. announced that it will launch Abaxx Silver Singapore futures on Friday, expanding Abaxx’s precious metals product suite.

The company said in a statement that its Silver Singapore (SSP) futures contract will be a U.S. dollar-denominated, 1,000-troy-ounce, physically deliverable product with a fineness of 0.9999, with delivery into approved vaults in Singapore.

Abaxx added that the contract is purpose-built for the commercial requirements of the global industrial silver market.

“The contract is designed to provide a globally accessible benchmark for price discovery and hedging, with physical delivery in Singapore intended to support Asian industrial trade flows,” the company said.

The launch of the new silver futures contract comes after the market experienced significant volatility over the last six years. In 2020, the global silver market supply chain was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down the global economy. The pandemic also disrupted mining operations, impacting silver production.

In 2025, the market experienced a second disruption after the U.S. government threatened to impose import tariffs on silver. Significant amounts of silver flowed into U.S. vaults and remained there through most of the year because of those fears.

A lack of supply in the global silver market, combined with rising investment demand, created major liquidity issues in physical over-the-counter markets in London, driving significant premiums in spot prices compared to futures prices. The liquidity crisis helped push silver prices to all-time highs above $120 an ounce in January.

The silver market is facing another potential supply crunch as the ongoing war in Iran continues to disrupt critical global commodities. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has specifically impacted global sulfur supplies, which are needed to produce sulfuric acid, a key component in the production of base metals such as copper.

Silver is mined as a by-product of base metal operations, and lower copper production will mean lower silver output. The latest supply issues come as the precious metal is expected to see its sixth consecutive annual supply deficit.

Silver is no longer only a precious metals story. It is increasingly tied to the industrial inputs behind solar, electronics, and advanced manufacturing,” said Russell Robertson, Chief Business Development Officer of Abaxx Exchange. “As those supply chains grow, commercial participants need pricing and risk management tools that connect more directly to the physical silver they source and use. The Abaxx Silver Singapore futures contract is designed to close that gap with a physically deliverable contract built around higher-purity silver and delivery in Singapore.”

In a Monday social media post following the announcement, Josh Crumb, Founder and CEO of Abaxx, said that North America is losing its grip on the silver market as Asian demand continues to grow.

According to trade data, China imported a record 836 tonnes of silver in March.

“Other than the silver ETFs and the limited industrial and coin manufacturing that takes place in North America, there will be less and less use for Comex silver,” Crumb said in his post. “And given that #silver has been weaponized in recent geopolitics (tariffs, admin delays and outright restriction), it’s more difficult to move silver between US, HK and China when SGE-COMEX arbitrage opportunities open up (especially with refining bottlenecks when arbitrage is flowing out to Asia). So why not just make the ‘western’ market Singapore—neutral and closer to the industrial demand?”

Abaxx also launched a physical gold contract in Singapore in June 2025.

Kitco Media

Neils Christensen

Neils Christensen has a diploma in journalism from Lethbridge College and has more than a decade of reporting experience working for news organizations throughout Canada. His experiences include covering territorial and federal politics in Nunavut, Canada. He has worked exclusively within the financial sector since 2007, when he started with the Canadian Economic Press. Neils can be contacted at: 1 866 925 4826 ext. 1526 nchristensen at kitco.com @KitcoNewsNOW

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