Silver Demand Rises Alongside Gold, Public Gold Executive Confirms
The founder and executive chairman of Public Gold Group, Datuk Seri Ng Chun Hau, recently disclosed that silver is experiencing a surge in demand, positioning the metal for significant potential price appreciation, mirroring the current boom in gold.
Ng pointed out a crucial factor often overlooked by many Investment analysts: silver is reported to be scarcer than gold, which intensifies the supply pressure as industrial demand escalates.
The consumption of silver is exceptionally high in the manufacturing of key high-tech products, specifically electric vehicles (EVs), advanced solar panels used in renewable Energy production, and consumer electronics like iPhones.
Citing data from the World Gold Council, Ng noted that the silver market has recorded a supply deficit for the last five consecutive years.
If global industries continue their high-tech product expansion and maintain this robust demand for silver, the commodity will inevitably see a substantial spike in price, according to Ng.
However, the executive chairman offered a note of caution, reminding investors that the daily trading volume of silver remains relatively low, representing only about 5% of the total trading volume seen in gold, which introduces a layer of market volatility risk.
Silver closed at US$53.36 per troy ounce on November 26, 2025, reflecting an impressive 80.45% year-to-date increase, as tracked by the XAG Silver Spot rate, which provides the real-time market price.
In comparison, gold, closing at US$4,162.15 per troy ounce on the same date, recorded a strong but lower 56.59% increase, with gold having peaked earlier on October 20 at US$4,356.50.
Silver’s price trajectory closely followed gold, shooting up to its recent peak on October 16, closing at US$54.28 per ounce, demonstrating a high correlation between the two precious metals.
Geopolitical Shifts and Public Gold’s Strategic Expansion
The robust performance of precious metals is fundamentally linked to ongoing global geopolitical unrest, a factor that the executive chairman of Public Gold believes will sustain the current upward momentum in gold prices.
Ng elaborated that central banks across the globe, including significant players in China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and the Philippines, are actively restructuring their national wealth portfolios by accumulating physical gold, thereby intentionally moving away from holding US dollar-denominated assets.
This strategic shift is significant, as some of these central banks now possess gold reserves that surpass their total holdings of US Treasury bills, marking a profound re-evaluation of global reserve stability.
Contributing to this trend, the recent partial shutdown of the US government, coupled with the nation’s staggering US$37 trillion national debt, are external macro-economic factors driving the price of gold above the US$4,000 per ounce benchmark.
Ng affirmed that the company is confident in the longevity of this upward trend for gold bars, provided the fiat money system continues to operate under its current conditions of fiscal expansion and debt accumulation.
The gold boom has directly fueled remarkable Business growth for Public Gold, which experienced a staggering 100% growth in 2025 compared to the previous year, with the company’s revenue expected to double from RM4-4.5 billion to RM8 billion, encompassing both its B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) segments.
Reflecting its deep involvement in the Gold ecosystem, the company—which has vertically integrated gold mining, refining, minting, manufacturing, and distribution since its 2008 inception—is also the first Malaysian entity to achieve international membership status at the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
Demonstrating its global supply presence, Public Gold signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Kyrgyz state-owned entity Kyrgyzaltyn in June to purchase 300kg of Kyrgyz gold in the form of 1kg bars, an agreement valued at US$36 million, further securing its supply chain.
Fintech Gold ATMs Revolutionize Accessible Gold Investment
Coinciding with the strong market performance of Gold, Public Gold has pioneered a significant initiative to democratize precious metal Investment by launching 110 fintech Gold ATMs across Malaysia.
This technological rollout is designed to support the purchase of Gold using various asset classes, critically including private digital tokens, integrating the traditional commodity market with the evolving digital asset ecosystem.
The first of these innovative Gold ATMs was deployed back in 2023, and each unit utilizes proprietary technology developed in-house, alongside collaborations with external solution providers, to create a secure and digitally connected payment framework.
Ng explained that by working with private token owners, Public Gold enables their customers to seamlessly convert their digital assets directly into physical Gold, bridging the gap between virtual and tangible wealth.
These machines allow customers to purchase physical gold in small, accessible denominations, ranging from 0.25 grams up to 20 grams, which is dispensed immediately upon completion of the transaction.
Furthermore, the system encourages fractional Investment through a unique Gold account feature, where individuals can accumulate purchases over time.
Once sufficient grammage is saved, customers can redeem the physical gold, with the corresponding weight deducted from their account balance, subject to a small fee that varies by product series.
Public Gold ensures transparency and trust by producing the dispensed Gold in-house and having it certified, with prices updated in real-time across all ATMs to prevent lags.
The security of these dispensing machines is paramount, with each unit featuring 24-hour surveillance using up to six CCTVs, constant screen recording of every transaction input, and a vibration-sensing alarm system to detect any attempted tampering or break-ins.
The system operates solely through cashless transactions, enhancing security through e-Know Your Customer (eKYC) processes that trace every purchase back to the customer via a unique payment ID, eliminating the risks associated with handling large amounts of physical cash at the terminal.
Strategic ATM Placement and Future Market Penetration
The strategic placement of these fintech Gold ATMs has been highly successful, with locations in high-traffic hypermarkets such as Aeon, Mydin, Giant, and Lotus’s proving most effective.
This success is primarily due to the strategy of targeting family-centric investors who are more inclined to save in Gold using the dollar cost averaging method, a technique that Ng credits with helping many of Public Gold’s customers improve their long-term financial health.
The accessibility and convenience offered by the ATMs have demonstrably increased sales volumes, with Ng noting that sales per ATM unit consistently rise month-to-month as public familiarity with the technology grows.
This success in making small-scale Investment accessible underscores a major Business innovation in the regional Finance sector.
Recognizing the potential for global expansion of this accessible Gold platform, Public Gold has begun international deployment.
The fintech Gold ATM was recently launched in Indonesia and, more recently, deployed in Dubai on November 25 as part of the company’s determined effort to penetrate the lucrative Middle Eastern market.
This move signals Public Gold’s intent to become a key global facilitator of accessible Gold trading, leveraging technology to appeal to both traditional savers and new digital asset investors worldwide, solidifying its position as an integrated, forward-looking player in the global precious metals market.
Regional Market Impact: Financial Democratization and Retail Gold Supply
Public Gold’s aggressive rollout of 110 Gold ATMs across Malaysia, paired with its expansion into Indonesia and Dubai, represents a significant structural change in the regional Finance and Investment landscape, specifically targeting the Retail Investment segment.
This strategy fundamentally challenges the traditional distribution model for physical gold, which historically involved a higher barrier to entry through banking channels or specialized bullion dealers, imposing minimum purchase limits and often requiring appointments.
The localized availability of fractional gold purchases (as low as 0.25 grams) via hypermarket ATMs effectively democratizes gold Investment, shifting the product from a high-net-worth asset to an accessible savings tool for middle-income households across Southeast Asia.
From a Business perspective, the RM8 billion revenue target signals that Public Gold is not merely riding the global gold price wave but capturing market share by optimizing the retail supply chain, cutting distribution costs, and increasing transaction frequency through convenience.
The integration with private digital tokens in the ATM ecosystem establishes Public Gold as an early mover in blending traditional and digital Finance, offering a tangible hedge against digital asset volatility and appealing directly to a technologically savvy, younger investor base in high-growth regional economies.
This move poses a direct competitive threat to regional bullion banks and local pawn shops, forcing them to modernize their gold trading platforms or risk losing market share to a more liquid and consumer-friendly automated alternative, establishing a new regional benchmark for precious metals Fintech.
