Silver Price Just Wiped Out Trillions – Here’s the Proof Banks Are Still in Control

Silver just got crushed again. The price tumbled from $74 to $67 in a single session today, a drop of nearly 10% in hours. That’s on top of a brutal 46.5% decline from the January highs near $121. Gold isn’t faring much better as the yellow metal lost 10% this week alone, sliding below $4,500 after touching $5,289 earlier in March.

But according to analyst Alex Mason, the sell-off isn’t natural market forces. It’s a familiar script with the same cast of characters.

The Silver Crash: 46.5% From the Top

The chart Mason posted on X tells the story in stark terms. Silver futures spiked to nearly $120 in January, then cratered. The vertical drop erased trillions in paper value. Today’s price sits near $67, down from $74 just before the latest leg lower.

What’s notable is what happened right at the bottom of that collapse. According to delivery data from the COMEX exchange, JPMorgan closed its silver short position at nearly the exact low. The table Mason highlights shows JPMorgan issued 633 contracts (sold short) but stopped (covered) only 17 contracts, but the annotation on the chart reads “JPMORGAN CLOSED ITS SILVER SHORT.” The implication: the bank had built a massive short position leading into the crash, then unwound it at the bottom, pocketing the difference.

The COMEX data is public. And the timing is uncanny.

JPMorgan’s Perfect Timing (Again!)

Mason reminds his followers that this isn’t the first time big banks have been caught manipulating silver markets. Between 2008 and 2016, five major financial institutions were fined for spoofing and price rigging:

• JPMorgan — $920 million fine in 2020, admitted wrongdoing
• Scotiabank — $127.5 million fine in 2020 for fraudulent trading
• HSBC — $76.6 million fine for spoofing
• Deutsche Bank — $75.5 million fine for rigging
• Morgan Stanley — $1.5 million fine for spoofing

These were criminal cases. Regulators handed out fines and convictions as recently as 2025. Now, in 2026, the same banks are present in the delivery data. The same kind of moves are happening. Silver crashes, and at the bottom, a major bank exits its short position with surgical precision.

Mason’s question is blunt: “You really think this is all natural? I don’t.”

The pattern is hard to ignore. For decades, the paper silver market operated on a gentlemen’s agreement; hundreds of paper claims per physical ounce, with the understanding that nobody would actually demand the metal. When institutions did demand delivery in January, the price spiked to $121, and the exchange stepped in with margin hikes and forced cash settlements. The price crashed.

Now, with silver down 46.5% from those highs and JPMorgan covering its shorts at the bottom, the picture of a controlled market is clearer than ever.

Read also: Retail Investors Are Piling Into Gold and Silver While Institutions Quietly Exit – Here’s the Data

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The post Silver Price Just Wiped Out Trillions – Here’s the Proof Banks Are Still in Control appeared first on CaptainAltcoin.