Silver Is in Short Supply But Access Doesn’t Have to Be

Silver is becoming increasingly difficult to source in South Africa. Across the market, traditional bullion dealers are reporting widespread out-of-stock situations and long waiting periods.

This isn’t a temporary blip. Global demand for silver is accelerating, driven by both investors seeking safe-haven assets and a range of industrial users, from electronics, solar energy and electric vehicles, to advanced manufacturing. At the same time, supply growth has struggled to keep pace. The result is a tightening physical silver market where access, not demand, has become the real constraint.

Pricing Is Responding to the Shortage

Silver prices have already begun to reflect this imbalance. As inventories shrink and industrial demand continues to rise, price momentum has followed. Unlike previous cycles driven mainly by investor sentiment, today’s silver market is being pulled in two directions at once:

• Rising investment demand, and
• Structural growth in industrial consumption

Historically, when physical silver becomes harder to source, premiums rise first, and spot prices often follow. For investors, this environment shifts the key question from whether to increase silver exposure to how efficiently that exposure can be secured.

Another factor to consider is the overly inflated premiums being added onto the physically available silver, as this has become common practice in the market, with dealers asking up to 40%+ on top of the market price.

Silverbits, one of the most affordable silver providers in the market, has fixed their Silver pricing at spot +10%. This means no additional premiums and no artificially inflated pricing, whilst giving investors access to the same asset, vaulted and insured at no additional cost.

Access Silver Without Retail Bottlenecks

While many local dealers struggle with limited availability, SilverBits (SLVR) on Mesh provides immediate access to real, vaulted silver.

Each SLVR token is fully backed 1:1 by 99.9% fine physical silver, securely stored in Union Vault and insured by Lloyd’s of London, with monthly third-party audits and on-chain proof-of-reserves.

Through Mesh, investors can:

• Buy silver instantly at live market prices
• Hold or trade SLVR at any time
• Accumulate fractional amounts
• Redeem holdings for a physical 1kg silver bar once sufficient value is reached

No long waits. No retail shortages. No storage headaches.

A Smarter Way to Secure Silver

In a tightening market, access is the advantage. SilverBits SLVR combines the certainty of physical silver with the speed and flexibility of digital markets, giving investors a way to secure exposure even when shelves are empty elsewhere.

Read more about SilverBits on Mesh here

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