On the heels of the United States' Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) publicly admitting at the end of the first quarter of 2022, that the major US precious metals trading markets are derivatives-dominated by only a few highly leveraged commercial bank players.

To be more precise, only about four counterparty-risk laden commercial banks often really run the price discovery show. The largest being JPMorgan Chase, then Citibank, Bank of America, and finally Goldman Sachs.

At the end of March 2022, they were then counterparty to +97.5% of all US derivative bets involving silver prices, platinum prices, palladium prices, and gold prices within complex derivatives like swaps, options, and futures contracts. The latter COMEX & NYMEX futures contracts hold huge sway over the prices quoted for precious metals around the world (gold, silver, platinum, palladium).