Traders reject CME claim of glitch due to cooling issue as data centres have backup air-conditioners
| Photo Credit:
Leonhard Foeger
The CME Group has blamed a “cooling issue” for the 10-hour glitch that affected operations of the global futures market. But stakeholders in the silver industry allege foul play by the US-based group to bail out a trader, who had to deliver nearly 12,450 tonnes of the white precious metal.
Allegations come on the heels of silver futures soaring to a record high of $56.775 an ounce on CME. Spot silver was quoted at $56.41 a tonne during the weekend. The precious metal has gained 95 per cent so far in 2025. In India, March silver futures ended at ₹1,75,340 a kg, a new record high.
The CME Group, which owns the Globex Futures and Options markets that account for 90 per cent of futures, options and commodities trading volume, said due to a cooling issue at its CyrusOne data Centre in Illinois, trading was halted.
Chinese info
“‘Cooling’ issue is their fun ‘too on the nose’ way of laughing at us,” said a precious metal trader, The Happy Hawaiian, on X (formerly Twitter).
The argument is that data centres have two or three air-conditioners as a backup for the failure of one. Thus, in no way could there have been a “cooling issue” at CyrusOne, said Eric Yeung, who comments on geopolitical and economic effects on precious metals, on X.
The “cooling issue” helped those who held short positions (selling at a higher price and buying when it falls) without any physical stock.
Yeung said information from one of his Chinese followers was that an authorised participant (AP) had to deliver 400 million ounces (12,441 tonnes) of physical silver.
‘Stretching a lie’
“So, the story that emerges when you merge the trading halt with the AP’s 400-million-ounce demand is not a glitch story at all. It is the story of a system that finally hit the limit of how far it could stretch the lie that ‘there is always metal’,” said The Silver Academy. It is an organisation which makes people aware of the versatility and importance of the precious metal.
“Rather than default, the banksters pulled the plug, and they are now trying to figure out what to do,” Yeung said, adding the short positions could have been held on the US’ COMEX and the London Metal Exchange.
Later, he posted a video of a Chinese financial analyst, who said 156 lots were short-covered on the night of November 27, which meant the speculator did not want to deliver physically.
“Now we lack physical silver with no inventory left,” said the unnamed analyst.
Just Dario, Synax Co-founder, said a commodity trader had dismissed the “glitch” excuse as unbelievable. “According to him, CME is giving time to market makers to reposition and avoid a price print ‘off the charts’,” he said.
Escape attempt
The Silver Academy said, “that (November 28) night the tape stopped behaving like a market and started behaving like an escape attempt.”
It said when a new high was “printed”, the ticker froze. “No quotes. No trades. Just a bright, clean nothing where a liquidity inferno had been seconds before,” the academy said.
The “glitch” gave clearing members and large short position holders a crucial window to assess margin calls, scramble for collateral, and quietly roll or reduce positions at prices that were merely “ugly instead of career-ending”.
“When the venue eventually flickered back to life, it did so under new ‘guardrails’: altered collars, heavier margins, and a re-framed narrative about ‘orderly markets’ and ‘technical issues’,” it said.
December 31 deadline
Commodity analyst and mining executive David Jensen said, “In summary, worldwide shortage. …in a world that has seen 7 years of running silver supply deficits, continuation of that flow is wishful thinking.”
Though 54 million ounces of silver have moved from New York, Shanghai and Switzerland to fill London vaults, they were inadequate to meet the supply shortage, he said.
The Silver Academy said that while paper trading stopped during the 10-hour glitch, physical trading did not. “Bullion sites kept ratcheting premiums. Miners, refiners, and industrial buyers kept haggling in back channels over real ounces that still had to move, regardless of what some frozen contract said,” the academy stated.
The Silver Academy said that December 31, 2025, has now become crucial when positions crystallise and the real situation will come to light. “Between now and that date, banks, exchanges, and regulators have to decide how much of this to bury and how much to reprice,” it said.
Published on November 29, 2025