China Is Quietly Buying Gold, the Iran Deal Is Frozen, and Silver Is Heating Up

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Okay, so before we dive into the numbers tonight, I owe you guys a straight-up honest answer. So, here it is. The main channel, Richard Holloway Report, has been completely removed from YouTube.

[00:00:12]It's gone, exactly like I warned in my earlier videos before the takedown happened. If you go search for it right now, you won't find a trace of it.

[00:00:21]That's the real reason the Patreon link is sitting right there in the description below. And honestly, that's the only reason. It's $20 a month. Think of it as the safety net, the firewall for everything we do here. If this backup channel ever gets hit and taken down the same way the main one was, all the analysis and updates will continue without missing a beat over on Patreon.

[00:00:42]The work doesn't stop. The data doesn't go dark. And if you can't join right now, that's completely fine. You're still more than welcome here, and the analysis stays free for everyone. Okay, so uh Friday afternoon, Washington, D.C.

[00:00:57]The President of the United States walks into the White House Situation Room with his entire National Security Team. He had already posted on social media hours earlier saying he was going to make his final call on the Iran deal, like the decision. Everyone was watching. And then, 2 hours later, he walks out. No announcement, no deal signed, no rejection, just complete silence. And honestly, that silence tells you more than any headline this week. So, let me walk you through exactly what happened, why it matters, and then I'm going to show you something that happened in the gold and silver market the same day that almost nobody in mainstream finance even noticed. Because these two things, a frozen deal in Washington and something going on on the other side of the planet, they are actually the same story. They just have two different addresses. Let's start with Washington because I want to give you the real version, not the 90-second clip version.

[00:01:55]So, before walking into that situation room, the president posted a list of things he said Iran must agree to. Never having a nuclear weapon. The Strait of Hormuz must be immediately open. No tolls. Unrestricted shipping. The US blockade on Iranian ports would be lifted. The two countries would work together to remove and destroy Iran's enriched uranium. And um no money would be exchanged until further notice. Then he said he was going in to make his final determination. Now, here's where it gets really interesting. If you actually look at the existing agreement text, the MOU that both sides negotiating teams had already worked out, a lot of those things are already in there. The Hormuz reopening, in there. The mine clearing timeline of 30 days, in there. The no tolls language, in there. The lifting of the naval blockade, in there. The 60-day framework for nuclear discussions, also in there.

[00:02:54]So, what's not in there? Two things. And these two things are the entire reason the deal was frozen right now. The first one is a coordinated removal and destruction of Iran's existing enriched uranium stockpile. Trump listed that as a demand on social media, but Iran's own foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the very same day that there are currently no negotiations happening on Iran's nuclear program. Zero. So, that's gap number one, and it's a big one. The second gap, this one is actually about money. $12 billion specifically.

[00:03:29]Trump said, quote, "No money will be exchanged until further notice." But Iran's semi-official news agency came right back and said the frozen assets are, and this is their words, "The important part of the agreement, and that Iran will reject any further negotiations unless that payment is made." So, Iran is saying, "We don't move without the money." Trump is saying, "No money right now." Both sides said this publicly on the same Friday within hours of each other. So, what you had on Friday night was both sides publicly laying out the exact two issues blocking the signature. And look, I know the mainstream is calling this a collapsed deal or a frozen deal, but I want to push back on that framing a little. When both sides publicly define the gap this specifically, 12 billion dollars and the nuclear program status, those gaps are actually now negotiable in a way that vague disagreements are not. A mediator now has specific numbers and specific conditions to work with.

[00:04:32]The deal is not dead. The timeline is just extending. And that extension, that is where the commodity market story really begins. So, let's talk about China because this is the part I genuinely think is the most underreported financial story of the entire year, and I want to spend some real time on it. China's Central Bank, the PBOC, bought gold in April. Now, that by itself is not surprising anymore, but here's the number that should make you stop for a second.

[00:05:02]260,000 troy ounces in a single month. That is the largest single month addition since January of 2025, and it brings total official Chinese gold reserves to 74.64 million troy ounces.

[00:05:18]Oh, and by the way, this was the 18th consecutive month that China's Central Bank bought gold. 18 months in a row.

[00:05:27]Not a single month off. And because of all this buying, gold now makes up 8% of China's total foreign exchange reserves.

[00:05:35]You know what that number was just 3 years ago? 3.4%.

[00:05:40]Um, let that sink in for a second. From 3.4% to 8% in 3 years.

[00:05:47]That is not an accident. That is not a blip. That is a deliberate structured shift in how China manages its national reserves. And it is the single largest sovereign reserve management shift of the 21st century.

[00:06:02]It is happening right now, month by month, confirmed by official data, while most people are busy watching drone footage from the Strait of Hormuz.

[00:06:11]And it is not just China doing this. The World Gold Council confirmed that global central banks collectively added 244 tons of gold just in the first quarter of 2026 alone. That is a 3% increase over the same period last year. And if you annualize that buying rate, you are approaching levels that would be the highest in recorded history. Independent analysis using that structural buying rate alone, not geopolitics, not inflation, just the central bank demand floor, puts gold's floor price somewhere around 4,200 to 4,400 dollars per ounce.

[00:06:49]That is the floor, not the target, the floor. Now, here is the connection that nobody in mainstream finance is making out loud. China has been reducing its US Treasury holdings and converting that capital into gold. At the same time, Iran cannot access 24 billion dollars of its own money because those assets sit inside the dollar-denominated financial system that the United States controls.

[00:07:13]Trump just said on Friday that none of that money is moving until further notice. And China has been watching the United States use the dollar system as a geopolitical weapon against Iran for decades. So, when you ask yourself why China has been buying gold for 18 consecutive months, the answer is right there in the Iran story. China is watching what happens when the country that controls your reserve currency also controls your access to your own capital. And China is buying gold is the answer to that question. Iran is trapped inside the problem. China is executing the solution in real time. These two stories are not running parallel to each other. They are the same structural dynamic playing out at two different speeds in two different countries. One is buying gold every month. The other is being reminded every month why it should have been doing the same. Okay, now let's get to the silver story. Because this is the part the title was promising and I think it genuinely delivers. So, on Thursday when Trump threatened Oman and news broke that an airbase was struck, deal optimism evaporated pretty quickly. Silver fell from the upper $70 range all the way down to around $72.

[00:08:28]Then on Friday when the MOU agreement by the negotiating teams got confirmed, silver bounced back up to around $75 to $76. Mainstream finance looked at that bounce and said, "Silver is recovering on deal hope." And that is partially true. But it is honestly the smaller part of the story. Here is the bigger part and this is what nobody talked about. On the same Thursday when silver's paper price was crashing down to $72, the COMEX registered vault recorded an increase of approximately 2.6 million troy ounces in a single session. Registered silver, meaning metal that is formally warehoused and available for physical delivery, went up while the paper price was going down.

[00:09:11]And that, hmm, that is the opposite of what normally happens in a sell-off. In a normal market sell-off, when paper prices fall, vault levels either drop or stay flat. Sellers are not lining up to do physical delivery. But what happened on Thursday was different. Commercial entities, producers, and industrial buyers were actually moving metal into the warranted pool specifically to stand against delivery. They were not running away from the physical market. They were adding to it on the same day that algorithmic trading models were selling paper contracts aggressively. That is a split happening in real time between what the paper market says and what the physical market is actually doing. And the delivery data makes it even more interesting. May 2026 final delivery came in at 6,414 contracts. That represents 32.1 million troy ounces. That number was 93% above April's pace, almost double. Industrial procurement managers who actually need physical silver for manufacturing chose to take delivery through COMEX rather than go through their normal supply chains. And the reason is straightforward. Hormuz has been closed.

[00:10:28]Shipping disruptions have made conventional supply chains unreliable.

[00:10:32]So, COMEX became the most reliable way to get guaranteed delivery metal in this environment. Now, look ahead to July.

[00:10:40]The July contract has 71,614 contracts of open interest, representing 358.1 million potential delivery ounces. And first notice day is 22 days away. The total registered deliverable silver right now stands at 84.1 million troy ounces. So, July's potential delivery demand is 4.3 times the entire registered deliverable pool.

[00:11:07]The coverage ratio is sitting at 16.5%.

[00:11:11]Just above the 15% formal stress threshold. And here is one more number.

[00:11:16]From October 2025 to today, registered silver on COMEX has declined by 26%.

[00:11:23]From about 113 million troy ounces down to 84.1 million. A structural 7-month drain, not a one-day blip. a slow steady draw on the physical available pool while the paper market kept trading like everything was fine. So, here is the sentence that ties it all together.

[00:11:42]Silver's paper price bounced 5% on Friday, but the physical delivery pipeline that built up over 13 weeks of Hormuz disruption does not bounce with it. The July pressure, the 93% May delivery spike, and that 26% registered vault decline. Those are structural features. They do not resolve when a paper price moves. They resolve when Hormuz gets cleared, when supply chains normalize, and when industrial buyers can reliably source silver outside the COMEX system again. None of those things happened this weekend. The signature that starts the 30-day mine clearing clock has not been applied. So, the physical pressure is still there, sitting underneath a paper price that bounced on optimism. Let me give you two pictures of what Monday morning could look like depending on what happens in the next 12 to 24 hours. If there is a signature this weekend, Monday's Globex open price is in the start of the 30-day Hormuz mine clearing timeline. Gold likely gives back somewhere in the $100 to $200 from current levels as geopolitical risk premium comes off.

[00:12:53]Silver, on the other hand, could spike towards $79 to $82 as Hormuz reopening and supply chain recovery gets priced.

[00:13:01]Oil falls as the energy supply disruption begins resolving. If there is no signature this weekend, and Friday's 2-hour situation room meeting with no outcome makes that more likely than less, then Monday opens with the same structural picture. Silver ranging between $72 and continuing to build toward first notice day. Both publicly confirmed gaps, the frozen assets and the nuclear program status still unresolved. Gold holding its structural floor around $4,400, supported by central bank buying that exists completely independent of whatever happens with Iran. Both of those scenarios are live right now. One variable separates them, and that variable is sitting in Mar-a-Lago or the White House tonight deciding whether two publicly defined gaps are bridgeable enough to sign a 60-day pause agreement.

[00:13:56]I want to say one more thing before we wrap up, and it is about the framing you are seeing in the news. The mainstream is calling this a frozen deal. But a frozen deal is something that was warm and went cold. What this actually is is a deal in its final negotiating stage, where both sides have publicly defined exactly what they need for ratification.

[00:14:17]That is not frozen. That is specific.

[00:14:20]And specific is actually better than vague when it comes to negotiations, because you can close specific gaps. You cannot close a vague disagreement. The mediators now have a number to work with and a condition to address. That makes this deal more closable than it was a week ago, not less. And look, the PBOC did not stop buying gold during a ceasefire. It did not stop during a breakdown. It did not stop during air strikes or drone engagements.

[00:14:48]It is not going to stop because of a situation room meeting that went nowhere.

[00:14:53]China's central bank is running a structural reserve diversification program that started years before this conflict and will continue years after it resolves.

[00:15:03]The 8% gold to reserves ratio is not a finishing line. It is a milestone. And silver, sitting at $75 to $76 with 26% of its registered COMEX pool drained since October, and July delivery pressure building at 4.3 times the available physical supply, is not a market that is waiting for a political decision. It is a market where the physical delivery pipeline has taken on a life of its own.

[00:15:32]Paper prices respond to headlines.

[00:15:35]Physical delivery pipelines respond to supply chain reality.

[00:15:39]Right now, those two things are being pulled in different directions by the same event.

[00:15:44]And that gap between paper and physical is honestly the most interesting setup in the commodity market this weekend.

[00:15:51]The deal is frozen. China is buying gold. And Sprott just showed you something this week that no paper price chart can capture. The physical market does not panic. It delivers.