Silver sank as much as 17% in the past 24 hours, reversing a two-day rebound as the metal struggled to find a bottom after last week’s historic drop.
The measure also dragged gold and copper down, extending a decline that, according to operators, has been magnified by poor liquidity and strong speculative positioning.
The new drop is also shown in the crypto lanes. On Hyperliquid, one of the largest liquidations linked to tokenized silver was a forced close of approximately $17.75 million on XYZ:SILVER, of which approximately $16.82 million came from long positions, according to trading data shared by market participants.
The lopsided decline fits the pattern of late, with traders leaning into rebound bets only to blush when volatility rises again.
That spillover effect is exactly what hedge fund manager Michael Burry pointed out earlier this week.
Burry described a “collateral death spiral” dynamic, where leverage increases as metals rise, and then falling crypto collateral forces traders to sell tokenized metals to reach margin. He noted that bitcoin losses could force institutions to liquidate profitable positions in metals.
On that type of tape, the liquidation leaderboard may appear inverted, with metal products briefly causing more damage than bitcoin itself.
The macroeconomic headlines don’t help. Markets are still digesting the political implications of Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Federal Reserve chair, while President Donald Trump has rejected the idea that the Federal Reserve could become more hawkish.
Rate expectations are important for precious metals, but the most important factor right now is positioning and forced selling, not the clear macroeconomic bid that fueled last month’s rally.
