How the #silver market was suppressed. Very interesting explanation. (Twitter link unfortunately). Very relevant to #Bitcoin
I Spent Eight Years Spoofing Silver
I'm a precious metals trader at a major bank.
Was.
Am.
Depends on which LinkedIn I'm updating.
Between 2008 and 2016, my desk placed orders we never intended to fill.
Thousands of them.
Tens of thousands.
We'd flood the book with sell orders.
Watch the algos panic.
Cancel before execution.
Buy at the bottom we just created.
Rinse.
Repeat.
For eight years.
We called it "spoofing."
The regulators called it fraud.
Same thing. Different business cards.
My bank paid $920 million to settle.
$920 million.
Two of my colleagues went to federal prison.
One year.
Two years.
They took it well.
Better than you'd think.
The bank paid their legal fees.
And kept their pensions.
Because that's what family does.
Eight banks. Total fines. $1.3 billion.
$920 million from us.
$127 million from Scotiabank.
$76 million from HSBC.
$75 million from Deutsche Bank.
The rest from the usual suspects.
All for the same thing.
Keeping silver where we wanted it.
Not where the market wanted it.
Here's what nobody understands about manipulation.
It's not about making money on the trade.
It's about making money on the *position*.
We had shorts.
Massive shorts.
The kind that show up in CFTC reports as "concentrated commercial interest."
That's regulator-speak for "these four banks control 68% of the market."
If silver went up, we lost billions.
So silver didn't go up.
For eight years.
Meanwhile, the world was changing.
Solar panels need silver.
500 million ounces by 2030.
Electric vehicles need silver.
AI data centers need silver.
Every green energy initiative, every climate target, every ESG presentation—
All of them need the one metal we were suppressing.
We knew.
We had the research.
We just didn't care.
2021: Supply deficit of 51 million ounces.
2022: 237 million.
2023: 184 million.
2024: 182 million.
2025: 166 million.
Cumulative: 820 million ounces.
That's 820 million ounces of silver the world needed.
That didn't exist.
Because mines can't produce fast enough.
And we spent a decade convincing everyone silver was worthless.
The prosecution came.
The fines came.
The prison sentences came.
We paid.
We restructured.
We "enhanced our compliance protocols."
That's how you say "we got caught" in a press release.
Then we did something beautiful.
We flipped.
We closed our shorts.
We went long.
713 million ounces.
Not a typo.
We now own more silver than we spent eight years suppressing.
Silver in January 2024: $23.
Silver in December 2025: $83.
Silver today: $110.
Up 260%.
From the price we kept it at.
To the price it should have been.
All along.
TD Securities tried to short it in October.
Lost $2.39 million.
In one trade.
We laughed.
Not because we're cruel.
Because we *invented* that trade.
And we knew when to stop.
December 2025.
COMEX registered inventory.
60% drawdown.
Four days.
47.6 million ounces claimed.
Physical delivery.
Not paper settlement.
Actual silver.
Leaving the vault.
The vaults we control.
Chinese banks suspended new precious metals accounts.
ICBC. Agricultural Bank. Construction Bank. Ningbo.
Raised margins.
Added circuit breakers.
They saw what was coming.
The same thing we saw.
When you suppress a price for a decade—
And the world still needs the thing—
Eventually the spring uncoils.
The board asked me how we're positioned.
I said "constructive."
Constructive means we're long.
Constructive means we're making billions.
Constructive means the same bank that paid $920 million in fines—
Is now making $900 million in gains.
On the same metal.
In the same market.
With the same traders.
Just different positions.
I'm updating my LinkedIn.
"Led precious metals transformation at global financial institution."
Transformation is accurate.
We transformed from criminal.
To compliant.
To profitable.
Same people.
Same desks.
Different direction.
Someone asked if I felt guilty.
About the manipulation.
About the miners who couldn't get fair prices.
About the investors who sold at the bottom we created.
About the eight years of artificial suppression.
I said I felt "reflective."
Reflective means no.
The next conference is in March.
"Precious Metals Outlook 2026."
I'm on the panel.
"Silver: From Suppression to Surge."
That's really the title.
They asked me to speak.
Because I have "unique insight."
I do.
I was the suppression.
Now I'm the surge.
$1.3 billion in fines.
Two men in prison.
Eight banks prosecuted.
820 million ounce deficit.
260% price increase.
$110 silver.
And I'm speaking at conferences.
About what's next.
You want to know what's next?
$120.
$150.
$200.
Not because I believe in silver.
Because I believe in deficits.
And I believe in the position we've built.
713 million ounces.
The same hands that held it down—
Now holding it up.
The market isn't broken.
The market is *working*.
For the first time in a decade.
Because we stopped breaking it.
Not out of conscience.
Out of position.
That's the lesson.
The same people who manipulate the bottom—
Manipulate the top.
We just change the sign.
Short to long.
Suppress to support.
Crime to compliance.
Same traders.
Same desks.
Same banks.
Different LinkedIn.
I'm going to make more money this year than I made in any year of the manipulation.
Legally.
Compliantly.
On the rally we delayed for a decade.
The spring uncoils.
The price finds its level.
The fines get written off.
And I update my LinkedIn.
"Precious metals expert."
"Market structure specialist."
"Transformation leader."
Nobody mentions the eight years.
Nobody mentions the $920 million.
Nobody mentions the prison sentences.
Silver at $110.
Gold at $5,000.
My bonus at ATH.
Same metal.
Same market.
Same me.
Different position.
That's not irony.
That's the system.
Working exactly as designed
X (formerly Twitter)
Peter Girnus 🦅 (@gothburz) on X
I Spent Eight Years Spoofing Silver
I'm a precious metals trader at a major bank.
Was.
Am.
Depends on which LinkedIn I'm updating.
Between 200...
