Silver Plunges Record 36% as Precious Metals Suffer Historic Collapse âEUR" Bitcoin About to Rally?

Silver Plunges Record 36% as Precious Metals Suffer Histo... Precious metals experienced catastrophic losses as silver recorded its largest intraday drop in history at 36% and gold plunged over 12%, wiping out $15 trillion in market value following Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, while Bitcoin fell to a nine-month low of $82,000 am... Precious metals suffered a catastrophic collapse on January 30 as gold plunged over 12% below $5,000 an ounce while silver recorded its largest intraday drop in history, falling as much as 36%, according to Bloomberg. Source: BloombergThe selloff was triggered by President Donald Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, which sent the dollar soaring and sparked massive profit-taking across commodities markets.The crash wiped out more than $15 trillion from the gold and silver markets in 24 hours, an amount equal to half the size of the entire U.S. economy.Despite the brutal correction, both metals still finished January with gains (gold up 12% and silver up 16%), while Bitcoin tumbled to a nine-month low of $82,000, raising questions about whether the digital asset will follow precious metals' trajectory or chart its own path.Historic Selloff Driven by Warsh Nomination and Technical FactorsSpot gold prices crashed more than 12% at one point, hitting a low of $4,682 per ounce in its biggest single-day decline since the early 1980s, closing down 9.25% at $4,880.Silver experienced an even more dramatic collapse, plummeting 36% intraday to $74.28 per ounce before settling 26.42% lower at $85.259, marking its worst day since March 1980. Gold and silver have lost a combined $6.52 trillion over the last 48 hours.That is equivalent to Bitcoin's entire market cap nearly 4 times over.Wild. pic.twitter.com/7tNipGt19e- Joe Consorti (@JoeConsorti) January 30, 2026 "Trump announcing Warsh as his pick for next Fed Chair has been a US dollar positive and precious metals negative," Aakash Doshi, global head of gold and metals strategy at State Street Investment Management, told Bloomberg."This has probably been exacerbated by month-end rebalancing as both short dollar and long precious metals has been the consensus macro trade over the past two to three weeks."The selloff accelerated through forced selling and margin calls as leveraged positions unwound."This is getting crazy," said Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, adding, "Most of this is probably 'forced selling.' This has been the hottest asset for day traders and other short-term traders recently. So, there has been some leverage built up in silver. With the huge decline today, the margin calls went out."Bloomberg also noted that technical factors amplified the crash as a gamma squeeze forced dealers to sell futures contracts as prices fell through key options levels at $5,300, $5,200, and $5,100 for gold.Gold's relative-strength index had recently hit 90, the highest in decades, signaling that the precious metal was severely overbought and due for a correction.Source: BloombergMajor mining companies suffered devastating losses, with Newmont down 11.52%, Barrick Gold falling 12.09%, and AngloGold plunging 13.28%.Copper also retreated 3.4% from Thursday's record high above $14,000 per ton, while silver ETFs saw their worst days on record, with the iShares Silver Trust losing 31%.Bitcoin Faces 'Two-Path' Dilemma as Markets Reassess Fed PolicyBitcoin dropped to $82,000 following Warsh's nomination, with spot Bitcoin ETF outflows accelerating to roughly $1 billion this month and total liquidations approaching $800 million to $1 billion, according to Bitfinex analysts.The digital asset is now trading at a nine-month low as investors reassess monetary policy trajectories.Jeff Park, CIO at Bitwise, outlined a critical framework for understanding Bitcoin's divergent path from precious metals in his "Two Bitcoin Thesis." "Metals are telling you spot debasement is happening; Bitcoin will tell you when the yield curve itself breaks," Park explained, distinguishing between "negative rho Bitcoin" that performs better when rates fall and "positive rho Bitcoin" that thrives when financial system assumptions collapse.Park argued the current environment represents the worst scenario for Bitcoin's "negative rho" thesis."We're currently experiencing good deflation in technology sectors while avoiding bad deflation in credit markets," he wrote."This is the worst possible environment for Bitcoin: productive enough to keep growth assets attractive, stable enough to keep Treasuries credible, but not catastrophic enough to break the system." https://t.co/9aCcpwV6YO pic....