He also points to Basel III’s Net Stable Funding Ratio framework as a quiet but powerful catalyst. Allocated physical Silver carries significantly different balance sheet treatment versus unallocated exposure.
“Regulatory architecture matters,” Hansen notes. “When capital efficiency models favour physical allocation and above-ground inventories are thinning, institutions respond. Swiss banks did not rotate $4.1 billion on sentiment. They rotated on structure.”
COMEX Pressure and Physical Demand
CME Group data indicates registered COMEX inventories are sitting at compressed inventory-to-consumption ratios relative to global industrial usage. Delivery participation rates in recent contracts have exceeded historical norms, suggesting increased preference for physical settlement.
“When delivery percentages climb above long-term averages while open interest remains elevated, it tells you confidence in paper exposure is declining,” Hansen explains. “Silver markets are small relative to the scale of institutional capital. It does not take a tidal wave to create a squeeze – just sustained pressure.”
He describes March as “a month where positioning can matter disproportionately,” adding that “if physical demand accelerates into delivery windows – the repricing can be nonlinear.”
Wall Street’s Quiet Rotation
Large quantitative trading firms and institutional desks have expanded exposure to Silver-linked instruments aggressively in recent weeks. Jane Street the world’s most profitable algorithmic trading firm – just became the largest owner of the SLV Silver ETF – purchasing a record 20.6 million shares worth more than $1.3 billion.
Elsewhere, major U.S investment banks have issued increasingly assertive price forecasts heading into Q2, 2026. Silver’s volatility profile, combined with its dual monetary and industrial identity, makes it uniquely sensitive to macro shifts.
“Silver is not merely Gold’s cousin,” Hansen says. “Gold preserves. Silver amplifies. In inflationary accelerations and monetary resets, Silver historically outperforms on a multiple basis.”
Inflation Is Re-Accelerating
Recent U.S producer price index data surprised to the upside, reflecting renewed wholesale cost pressures. Inflationary undercurrents remain embedded across services and industrial supply chains. Historically, precious metals respond disproportionately when inflation expectations reprice.
“Inflation is not dead – it is evolving,” Hansen argues. “When wholesale costs re-accelerate while fiscal expansion persists, hard assets regain strategic relevance. Silver benefits from both the monetary hedge narrative and the industrial growth narrative simultaneously.”
The Path to New All-Time Highs Reopens
Over the past 15 years, The Gold & Silver Club has built a reputation as the most accurate forecaster of Precious metal prices, a record well documented across leading financial publications and institutional research reports. The firm’s proprietary models have consistently pinpointed major turning points in both Gold and Silver – earning GSC recognition as a trusted authority among institutional investors and private wealth clients alike.
The Gold & Silver Club’s proprietary models project a materially higher base-case trajectory into year-end, with Hansen describing current levels as “early-cycle positioning.”
“March, from a technical and seasonal perspective, has often marked inflection points in prior Silver cycles” he concludes. With institutional rotation accelerating and delivery pressure building beneath the surface, complacency may prove costly.
Precious metals markets rarely telegraph their most powerful moves, especially Silver. It has a history of moving quietly – until it doesn’t.
