#数字资产市场动态 The Dark Battle of Silver

This is no longer just normal market fluctuations but a sign that market order is collapsing. Silver surged 8% in one day, touching the $80 mark during Shanghai trading, yet the derivatives markets in New York and London plunged into liquidity drought. Even more bizarre — this round of rally was almost without any retail speculative activity. What you see is not market functioning, but systems spiraling out of control. Silver is becoming the first metal commodity in the global financial system to be forced into a dead end.

1. Speculators Disappear

The counterintuitive part is right here. Looking at such a fierce rally, conventional thinking would say — it must be leverage funds causing trouble. But the reality is completely opposite. Over the past 6 to 8 weeks, COMEX silver open interest has been steadily declining. What does this indicate? No leverage funds are fueling the surge. This isn’t driven by irrational sentiment, retail short squeezes, or hot money frenzy. Prices are rising, but willing sellers are vanishing into thin air — and that’s the most terrifying part.

2. London Can’t Hold Up

There’s a market rule: paper contracts can always be settled somewhere. But this assumption is now being torn apart in the silver market.

London’s deliverable physical stockpiles are as tight as they can be. New York’s inventories are frozen, no one wants to release them. Over in Asia — especially China — systemic accumulation of physical silver is happening. China used to be like a "reservoir" for global silver: physical supplies flowed out continuously, supporting derivatives trading in London and New York. Now, this mechanism is broken. China is no longer acting as a marginal supplier. Once physical liquidity dries up, the derivatives market faces only one fate: filling an ever-growing number of paper promises with less and less real silver. This is the first front of the silver war.

3. Silver Is More Than a Safe Haven

Many investors overlook this point. Silver is not just a simple safe-haven asset — it is the lifeblood of real industry. Photovoltaics, electric vehicles, semiconductors, new energy storage — all rely on it.

China is rewriting the game rules.