Silver Holdings Explained: Storage Locations and True Availability

Global Silver Demand Trends

• 💡 Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) withdrawals for physical silver were near record levels in 2025 and continue at a similar pace in early 2026, indicating strong demand in China.
• 📈 Annual global physical demand for silver is approximately 200 million ounces, putting pressure on available supplies.

COMEX Inventory Dynamics

• 📊 COMEX inventories surged in 2025 due to tariff-related arbitrage, pulling metal from London, but have since seen rapid drawdowns exceeding 100 million ounces.
• ⚠️ The critical issue for COMEX is the small "registered" category (under 100 million ounces), which represents truly available silver and indicates heightened delivery risk despite higher total inventories.

LBMA and True Availability

• 🔍 The LBMA reports nearly 900 million ounces in holdings, but the estimated "free float" of readily available silver is significantly smaller, around 140 million ounces.
• 🧩 These "free float" figures are market estimates, not formal exchange statistics, highlighting a lack of transparency in true physical availability.

Limited Commercial Silver Supply

• 📉 The combined total of readily accessible, unencumbered silver across major exchanges (SGE, LBMA free float, COMEX registered) is estimated to be limited, around 260 million ounces.
• 🌎 Despite billions of ounces in above-ground silver stocks, only a small portion is commercially available for purchase at any given time, with much of it moving eastward.

Physical vs. Paper Market

• 🔥 Silver's designation as a "critical mineral" suggests potential government strategic stockpiling, further increasing physical demand.
• ⚔️ There is an ongoing struggle between the physical market reality and the "paper paradigm" of high-frequency trading and algorithms, with physical silver ultimately expected to assert dominance.