Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
Silver prices started testing new all-time highs yesterday. Every day we get closer to seeing silver hold above the $80 mark.
It was only about three years ago when silver sentiment and price hit lows around $17. Still, there’s no rush from the public to even buy a single coin. So, there are two questions we could be asking. One question, more important than the other.
The first is… When will the mainstream media and general public catch on? But…
The second is far more important…
This is what’s going to happen…#Gold #Silver 🔥🔥🔥🫠 pic.twitter.com/5fcVLBIqfj
— Eric Yeung 👍🚀🌕 (@KingKong9888) January 6, 2026
How long before physical silver really runs out? When physical deliveries fail and the exchanges have no more answers for those playing the futures market. There are a few big exchanges around the world that tell us ending to that story. The first place to look is the asian market. Shanghai holds silver for paper markets in the East. Through the fall of 2025, physical silver was shipping… Received a buffer, and is now back down near its previous low.
It will be fun to see inventories go to zero. 🤭 pic.twitter.com/4oM0JqWjAo
— Correlation Economics (@GoldForecast) January 7, 2026
Over in the US, it’s a similar story. Physical silver inventories, those registered for trading and not just storage (eligible), have also been draining over the past year.
🚨 Last week Comex’ silver vaults dropped 12 metric tons
Can we trust their numbers? Well, I let you decide. IMO something smells fishy about LBMA+Comex as a total.
—
🔖 Split of inventory
For the week the registered category decreased by 29 m.tons, while eligible was up 41.… pic.twitter.com/VniR9Xpu15— Solve Nettug (@mypreciousilver) January 6, 2026
Meanwhile, the world’s center for precious metal exchange has been draining since the Fed started hiking rates in 2022. That is, until the beginning of 2025 when metal was pulled from COMEX in the US, and Shanghai. If the London Vault is supposed to be the global measure for available physical precious metal, and they need pull silver from the COMEX and London, supply is diminishing.
📉 London’s silver stockpile collapsed, with LBMA’s free float hitting zero during the Great Silver Squeeze. Nevertheless, a frantic scramble pulled metal in from COMEX and Shanghai. ⚡
💭 Is London rebuilding trust or just catching its breath before the next squeeze? 🔮… pic.twitter.com/qXAMVyxlz7
— In Gold We Trust (@IGWTreport) December 28, 2025
Globally, there is more demand than supply. The thing is, the demand for silver as a monetary metal is rapidly increasing, and that’s why silver’s price can shoot up so fast. It’s also why silver supply can disappear, almost over night.
Taken together, these four charts tell a story that price alone still hasn’t fully reflected. Across Shanghai, COMEX, and London, physical silver inventories continue to move in one direction, even as demand quietly accelerates. Markets can debate sentiment, narratives, and timing—but metal leaving vaults is a fact, not an opinion. Silver doesn’t need everyone to believe in the shortage at once. Silver only needs enough participants to demand delivery at the same time and that moment is getting closer each and every day.
6 thoughts on "How Long Before Physical Silver Runs Out? (In 4 Charts)"
I did my own analysis on the global free float run rate and posted it on X if you are interested:
https://x.com/pmbug/status/2009369052758557105
Thanks for sharing this one. Two years is not a lot of time. Could be less. We’ll see…
Since the amount of silver produced has been less than the amount of silver consumed for 5 years I think the $57 level is the low going forward.
$57 is very low.
Have you seen the Korean guy videos? He said that silver will run out in a week. He said that China shut off all silver shipments to the western world and aren’t even quoting us. All silver shipments out of China would need government approval on a case-by-case basis which would take 4 to 6 weeks. Without silver, companies that produce smart phones & electric cars could go out of business.
He also said that just before Christmas China & Russia took all the silver out of Venezuela on transport planes over a 6-hour period.
Hey Deb, make sure to read tomorrows’s Sunday Morning Thoughts. I add a bit to the conversation that’s already been going on in regards to the AI production, “The Asian Guy.”
Also, the information the AI produces is extremely hard to verify. It’s closer to an AI hallucination than anything man made.
But maybe it’s true. I’ve been wrong before. There’s no way to know.