$100 Billion in Gold and Silver Deliveries: Andy Schectman on Who Is Accumulating and Why
Andy Schectman told Commodity Culture that silver’s return to the $50’s is not a reason for stackers to sell. The fundamentals have not changed, and the people with the best information are still taking metal.
On the COMEX, more than 600 tons of gold worth roughly $81 billion and more than 9,000 tons of silver worth about $17.5 billion have stood for delivery. That is a combined $100 billion in physical metal changing hands at levels no one has seen before.
“The most well informed and well financed traders on the planet are doubling down their acquisition. Don’t tell anybody. Standing for delivery at levels that no one has ever seen.”
Schectman said less than 1 percent of COMEX contracts normally stand for delivery. The exchange is built to offset risk, not to deliver metal. When sophisticated players suddenly take ownership at this scale, the paper price is no longer the main story. Price, he argued, is a tool of misdirection. Paper markets can paint a different picture while the real accumulation happens underneath. JP Morgan paid more than $920 million in fines for precious metals manipulation. That history is not a theory. It is a record.
“Price is a tool of misdirection. And the biggest money on the planet bought more silver, imported more silver than at any time in the history of the country.”
He raised the possibility that the United States is involved through proxies. The Treasury could be using the Exchange Stabilization Fund. Commercial banks could be acting at arm’s length. Tether has bought more gold than almost anyone except Poland, more than 146 tons, with reserves above $20 billion. Bo Hines, a Trump administration figure, has ties to the company. Schectman asked whether Tether could be serving as a private sector proxy while the government accumulates without announcing a formal buying program. Silver has been designated a critical mineral. Gold appears in Executive Order 14241. The pieces, he said, fit a quiet strategy.
China continues its own accumulation. The People’s Bank of China has reported 23 consecutive months of buying, with more than 1,000 tons added in the first eight months of 2026 alone. Official numbers are widely believed to understate the total. Imports are on track for an 11 year high. China is expanding the Shanghai Gold Exchange and offshore vaults in Hong Kong so that trade can settle in yuan. Schectman said Beijing is happy with current prices while it is still building inventories. Why raise the price before the vaults are full?
“They’re using the Western price to accumulate the metal, but quietly building a system where the yuan facilitates trade. This will be the rails of the BRICS.”
BRICS countries are building interoperable payment systems. Brazil has PIX. China has CIPS. The goal is not an immediate new currency. It is the infrastructure that can settle imbalances in gold through multi jurisdictional vaults. Dedollarization, Schectman said, starts with the pipes, not the announcement. Once those pipes are in place, the Western price discovery system loses its monopoly.
He believes Washington is now thinking along the same lines. Rather than announce a public buying program that would send prices higher before the metal is secured, the strategy is to use existing markets and proxies. If that reading is even close to correct, the eventual repricing of gold and silver will be far more significant than most people expect.
“I believe Washington is now thinking along the same lines. So what if the US recognizes the strategic importance of accumulating gold and silver but doesn’t want to telegraph those intentions.”
Global conflicts add to the setup. Military spending, more debt, and higher inflation put the Federal Reserve in a bind. The market has not yet priced a full wartime premium. Schectman said the most informed traders are still doubling down while that gap remains. There are no free markets, he noted, only manipulations.
The $100 billion in deliveries is the evidence that someone with deep pockets is using the current prices to take ownership before the next system arrives. Stackers who hold physical metal are on the same side of that trade.
