SDiX — Singapore's Diamond Trading Exchange
SDiX — Singapore's Diamond Trading Exchange
A regulated platform built to bring price transparency to certified polished diamonds in Asia
SDiX is the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange, a regulated trading platform launched to provide price transparency and liquidity for polished diamonds in the Asian market. The exchange operates as a centralised venue where standardised, certified diamonds are bought and sold under defined contract terms, with the aim of reducing the opacity that has traditionally characterised the diamond trade and giving institutional and retail buyers a more transparent route into diamonds as a tradable asset. SDiX complements Singapore's broader role as a regional hub for precious stones, precious metals, and high-value commodity trading, alongside the established diamond bourses in Antwerp, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, and New York.
Structure and contracts
SDiX trades certified diamonds in standardised contract sizes, with each contract referencing a specific combination of carat weight, colour, clarity, and cut grade as documented by GIA or another recognised laboratory. The standardisation reduces the deal-by-deal negotiation that characterises traditional diamond trading and allows buyers and sellers to transact on price and quantity without having to inspect each stone individually. Settlement is on a defined cycle, with physical delivery of the diamond from the exchange's vaulting partner to the buyer on completion, or with cash settlement against an exchange-defined reference price for buyers who prefer not to take physical delivery.
The exchange operates under regulatory oversight by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which gives buyers and sellers a regulated trading environment with the standard protections of a recognised exchange. Membership is open to qualifying institutional buyers, registered diamond merchants, and retail buyers who meet defined criteria; participation costs include exchange membership fees, transaction fees, and any custody or settlement charges associated with physical delivery.
Position in the diamond trading landscape
SDiX is one of several attempts in recent decades to create a regulated, exchange-traded venue for diamonds. The traditional diamond bourses in Antwerp, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, and New York are member-organisation trading floors where dealers transact face-to-face under bourse rules; they provide a market structure but not the price transparency or standardised contracts of a true exchange. The Israel Diamond Exchange, the Antwerp Diamond Bourse, the Bharat Diamond Bourse, and the Diamond Dealers Club of New York remain the principal global trading venues for rough and polished diamonds, with SDiX positioned as a complementary rather than competing venue oriented toward standardised polished trading.
Trading volumes on SDiX have remained modest compared to the established bourses, reflecting the difficulty of building liquidity in a market traditionally dominated by relationship-driven, deal-by-deal transactions. The exchange model depends on a critical mass of standardised inventory and active counterparties; below that mass, bid-ask spreads widen and the price-discovery function that justifies the exchange structure is degraded.
In the trade
SDiX provides Singapore-based and Asian institutional buyers with a regulated route into polished diamonds, with the documentation, custody, and settlement infrastructure that institutional investment normally requires. The exchange's longer-term significance depends on its ability to attract sustained trading volumes and to anchor itself as a price-discovery venue alongside the established global bourses. For working diamond merchants and retail jewellers, the principal trading venues remain the bourse system and the broader trade-to-trade market; SDiX is a parallel channel rather than the primary one.
The exchange's emergence reflects a wider Asian appetite for diamonds as an asset class, alongside parallel developments in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Mumbai. Whether the model proves durable depends on continued institutional engagement and on the exchange's ability to handle the inventory-management challenges that exchange-traded diamonds present. See also Antwerp Diamond Bourse, Bharat Diamond Bourse, Israel Diamond Exchange, GIA grading.