Abaxx Will Let Traders Bet on Gold in Offshore Yuan
A Singapore exchange is adding renminbi-denominated gold and gas contracts, betting that Asia's commodity trade is ready to price in China's currency.
Abaxx Exchange plans to launch two new futures contracts priced in offshore renminbi on Monday, November 16, giving traders a way to hedge gold and natural gas exposure in China's currency rather than the US dollar. The launch is pending regulatory approval in Singapore, according to the announcement from Abaxx Technologies Inc.
Two contracts, one currency shift
The first contract, Gold Singapore CNH Cash-Settled futures, covers kilobar gold of 0.9999 fineness — the standard one-kilogram bar traded in Asia. It settles financially against the price of Abaxx's existing Gold Singapore futures contract, with the final settlement price converted into renminbi using the Bloomberg FX Fixing mid rate for USD/CNH at the 2:00 p.m. Singapore fixing on the last trading day, rounded to the nearest CNH 0.01.
The second, LNG North Pacific Asia CNH-Cash Settled futures, covers 10,000 MMBtu of liquefied natural gas and settles the same way against Abaxx's LNG DAP North Pacific Asia futures contract. Abaxx said it expects to keep expanding its renminbi-denominated offerings in the coming months.
The mechanics bridge two worlds. The underlying benchmarks remain Abaxx's existing contracts, but the currency of exposure changes: participants can take a view on gold or gas prices, and hedge regional price differences, without taking on dollar exposure to do it.
Why now
The timing reflects a gold market that has been hard to ignore. According to the release, gold has reached record highs in 2026, driven by increased central bank buying and growing demand for the metal as a store of value, while demand for the US dollar as a reserve currency has faced increasing challenges. Yahoo Finance showed gold trading around $4,049.60 at the time of the announcement.
Abaxx's existing gold futures are benchmarked to the LBMA Gold Price, and the company says they are the only physically delivered gold futures contracts available in Asia, settled through delivery in Singapore. Its one-kilogram gold contracts have seen a record increase in open interest over the past year and, the company said, have emerged as a benchmark for gold price discovery in the region.
The new contracts are aimed squarely at that momentum. As China's commodity markets become more globally connected, the release argues, traders need tools denominated in the currency where a growing share of the physical trade actually happens.
The exchange behind the launch
Abaxx Exchange is the Singapore-based, MAS-licensed subsidiary of Toronto-listed Abaxx Technologies Inc., alongside clearinghouse Abaxx Clearing. The exchange and clearinghouse offer centrally cleared, physically deliverable futures for LNG, gold, and carbon, and are building price benchmarks for all three. The company's stated ambition is to improve price discovery and transparency in global commodities, with a particular focus on gold and LNG markets in Singapore and London. The renminbi contracts are the latest step: if Asia's gold trade is increasingly priced and settled in the region, Abaxx wants its benchmarks — and now its currency options — to be part of that plumbing.
One caveat, noted in the release itself: the November 16 launch is still pending regulatory approval in Singapore, and the announcement carries the usual forward-looking statements caution that plans may change.
Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.
