CME Halt Sparks Silver Chaos: $3 Slam Then Surge as Vaults Bleed 2.2M Oz!
CME Halts Metals Trading Ahead of Silver First Notice Day – Deja Vu from 2025
CME halted Globex metals (and natural gas) trading due to technical issues, occurring only ~36 hours before March Silver First Notice Day. This mirrors the Nov 28, 2025 halt on First Notice Day for the December contract, after which silver spiked immediately then more than doubled to an all-time high above $121/oz over the following ~60 days amid a reported physical delivery push.
Verified: CME confirmed a technical halt on metals trading from ~12:15 p.m. CT to ~1:45 p.m. CT on Feb 25, 2026 (Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial Times). The 2025 "cooling issues" outage on Nov 28 is documented; silver reached a record $121.64/oz in Jan 2026 per Trading Economics data.
Bullion Banks Unleash on Silver After CME Halt, Slamming Price $3 to $88.20
Immediately following the trading resumption, silver was aggressively sold $3 lower to $88.20 in an apparent defense of the $92 level, with gold also dropping sharply. Market watchers noted the timing as suspicious given the proximity to First Notice Day and looming breakout potential.
Verified: Silver exhibited high intraday volatility on Feb 25, 2026, trading in the $88–$91+ range with documented sharp moves post-halt (JM Bullion live charts, Trading Economics, Barchart futures data). The "cartel/bullion bank" interpretation reflects widespread speculation in precious metals communities but is not officially confirmed.
2.2 Million Oz Drained from COMEX Silver Vaults on Tuesday
COMEX silver inventories saw a major draw: total silver declined 2,165,852 oz to 361,844,401 oz, while registered (deliverable) silver plunged 890,000 oz to 86,282,854 oz. Key outflows included 1.055M oz from Asahi, 1.067M oz adjusted out of Brinks registered, 647k oz from HSBC, and 374k oz from JP Morgan (with some offsets at other vaults).
Verified: COMEX registered silver remains critically low at ~86–88 million oz with ongoing multi-million-oz weekly draws confirmed across multiple trackers (GoldSilver.ai inventory monitor, Silver Academy analysis). The specific Tuesday figures align with the pattern of persistent physical outflows reported in real-time vault updates.