Let’s connect the dots.
• U.S. government prepares for a shutdown.
• First U.S. bank of 2026 fails (FDIC takeover).
• Liquidity tightens across the system.
And right on cue — paper silver gets smashed.
On Jan 30, COMEX silver traded roughly:
• 368,561 futures contracts
• 28,152 options contracts
Each COMEX silver contract = 5,000 oz.
That’s ≈ 396,700 contracts total
→ ~1.98 BILLION ounces of “silver” traded in a single day. Yes, again.
Almost 2 billion ounces.
In a world where annual mine supply is ~800–850 million oz.
Let that sink in.
This wasn’t price discovery.
This was liquidity management via fictional ounces.
While:
• dealers suspend trading
• delivery times jump to 8–16 weeks
• inventories vanish
• physical premiums detach
The paper market dumps multiple years of global silver production in a few hours.
Perfect timing.
Totally organic.
Just a coincidence… again.
Paper markets clear fear.
Physical markets clear reality.
And when governments stall, banks fail, and trust cracks —real metal doesn’t come back to market. It disappears from it.
https://x.com/honzacern1/status/2017554501423542660