Bullion banks are a key driver of physical buying at comex ... and that accelerate during yesterday's record physical buy.
January 8, 2026 11:30 AM
Physical silver demand at comex is sizzling.
Going back 5 trading days … first notice day on the January contract saw 4,583 contracts or 22.9 million oz stand for delivery. That was the highest in comex history for an inactive contract. In fact, that total surpasses many previous active month contracts during 2023 and 2024:
Yesterday was the 5th trading day since first notice and net new contracts totaled 1,581 for 7.9 million. That is about 14 times the typical daily new contracts at this point in the delivery period. Furthermore it tops ANY previous day during the delivery period (for inactive contracts):
Trading over the first 5 days since first notice has resulted in 2,269 net new contracts, about 8 times typical, and tops the previous record set last February:
With record contracts initially standing for delivery and record contracts written since first notice day, it’s clear that physical deliveries (the sum of those two categories) are in record territory.
So far, deliveries are now 6,321 contracts or 31.6 million oz which is about twice the previous record high at this point in the delivery period (which was set by several contracts in 2025).
Who’s driving the buying binge? It’s bullion banks! Top buyer so far on the January contract is Citi’s house account at 8.6 million oz. JP Morgan customers (not the bullion bank) are next however that group has been the largest seller by far. Other bullion bank buying has been by BofA, HSBC and Morgan Stanley’s house accounts:
Net bank selling has been huge since the QE infinity price spike. From that point until May 2025 bullion banks sold a net 110 million oz of physical at comex. See the plot below which shows the monthly net and the cumulative net position of all bullion banks.
What was special in May 2025? Silver was about $32 . Since then, bullion banks have abruptly changed course and snapped up a net 26 million oz. The most important thing … bullion banks accelerated buying during yesterdays trading.
Banks, family offices, please continue to roll paper silver contracts into the physical delivery mechanism at the COMEX . Let’s End the fraud short scheme once and for all ! Cheers 2026 - People keep on stacking the real 😋
A lot of rumors about DB (again). They were forced out of a (house account) 3m short at the end of 2025, which was confirmed by CME. Buyers were JPM (client account) and HSBC & Citi (both house account). Suggestions are that they are the main "non-US bank" sitting on a huge short.