Bloomberg: London Silver Market Thrown Into Turmoil As Silver Squeeze 'Rocks Market'
“I have seen nothing like it ever. What we are seeing in silver is entirely unprecedented,” said Anant Jatia, chief investment officer at Greenland Investment Management, a commodities hedge fund. “There is no liquidity available currently.”
It is remarkable to see Bloomberg reporting today that the world’s largest silver market in London is effectively having a seizure.
In their article, Bloomberg reports that the London market is essentially in a state of lock-up, “[t]he cost to borrow London silver overnight rose well over 100% on an annualized basis, which at least one market veteran said he believed was higher than anything seen during the 1980 squeeze.”, that bid-ask spreads were blowing out due to market illiquidity, and that it is unclear how this situation will resolve itself.
The article also reports “London Bullion Market Association… …said in a statement that it was “aware of tightness in the silver market and is actively monitoring the situation.” ”
Smile.
What is needed for the market to clear is for the silver price to move much higher in the near term to mobilize silver to London.
And the most essential point, that the Bloomberg article does not mention, is the billions of oz. of London private cash/spot contracts for immediate delivery of silver which cannot be fulfilled. Default.
Bloomberg Errors
Bloomberg reports in the article that what it deems the ‘free-float’ of silver that it defines as “metal available to provide liquidity to the London market” is 200 million (M) oz.
The latest LBMA statistics show that London vaulted silver not held by Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) is not 200M oz. but 140M oz. (the ‘float’) and as this Substack discussed in September, very little of that metal appeared available to market (the ‘free float’). It was also discussed on September 26, 2025 here: London Precious Metals Market Shows Increasing Risk Of Fast Rupture.
Well, we can see as of yesterday October 10 , the London silver free float is effectively zero.
Today’s Bloomberg article also points to heavy imports of silver by India as being a contributing cause.
It is difficult to see how these imports can be material given India’s customs reporting of silver imports.
And India restricted silver imports on September 24, 2025.
Figure 1 - India Monthly Silver Imports Through August 2025; source: GoldChartsRUs.com
Finally, the Bloomberg article claims that the Hunt brothers squeezed the silver market in 1980. During the 1970s, the Hunt family acquired 90M oz. of silver bullion and in 1980 they held 100M oz. of silver futures contracts from which they were steadily taking delivery. At that time, US circulating silver coinage alone amounted to 2.5 billion (B) oz. While silver’s price ran 24x higher from 1971 to 1980, gold’s price ran 21x higher and nobody alleges that the Hunt’s squeezed the global gold market.
In reality, the 1970s run-up in silver and gold prices resulted from loose monetary (currency) policy over decades by the central planners at our central banks.
The London Leveraged Metals Market Is Rekd
While the Bloomberg article and events in London’s silver market are noteworthy, they were highly predictable in 1987 when the Bank of England structured the London gold, silver, platinum and palladium markets to trade promissory notes in London’s immediate ownership cash/spot markets. Promises for metal and vaulted, allocated, and segregated metal bars are two very different things.
London’s disorderly silver market today raises questions not just about the billions of oz. of silver spot/cash contracts standing in the silver market but ultimately also the 100s of millions of oz. of spot/cash gold contracts standing there as well.
Investors and industrial users are increasingly saying ‘we’ll take the metal’ which spells the end for leveraged pyramid schemes such as the London precious metals market.
The Bloomberg article makes for very interesting but concerning reading and can be read here:
Silver Traders Rush Bars to London as Historic Squeeze Rocks Market
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/silver-traders-rush-bars-london-104741282.html
Best regards,
David Jensen
The Great Theodore (Ted) Butler, who had his own authoritative newsletter, in his extremely well buttressed and documented exposure of the truly massive on-going Big Shorts Market Manipulation for 40+ years, and was routinely ignored by the so called Regulatory Agencies even after ENDLESS letters and warnings by this same great and good man, who pored through mountains of paperwork trails to understand and translate intelligently just how, who and what was engaging in the “game”predicted EXACTLY what is now at hand. How I wish he had lived to see his prophecy coming to pass. His predictions of post price upheaval is worthy of continuing study. And hats off to the GREAT James Cook, of INVESTMENT RARITIES for hiring Mr Butler over many years-and allowing many many others, including myself, to understand and find out about this incredible story.
It looks like the music has stopped and the players are looking for the chairs that are not there.