Why Physical Gold and Silver Are No Longer Priced by COMEX — and Why That Terrifies Paper Holders

By Integritas Macro Intelligence

For decades, investors were taught to believe that the price of gold and silver was whatever the screen said it was.

If COMEX said gold was $4,600, that was the price.If COMEX said silver was $76, that was the price.

That assumption is now breaking — not philosophically, but operationally.

What we are witnessing today is not volatility. It is a structural re-ranking of price discovery, where physical markets — particularly in Asia — are reclaiming authority from paper-based Western exchanges.

And the implications are profound.

The Core Misconception: “Price” vs. “Value”

The critical mistake most investors make is assuming that a futures reference price equals realizable value.

It does not.

COMEX prices reflect:

• Paper contracts

• Cash settlement

• Algorithmic trading

• Hedging flows

• ETF rebalancing mechanics

They do not reflect:

• Immediate physical delivery

• Regional supply shortages

• Industrial urgency

• Sovereign accumulation

• Vault-to-vault clearing reality

This distinction mattered less when arbitrage was frictionless.

It matters enormously now.

Why Shanghai Matters More Than Ever

The Shanghai Gold Exchange prices metal the old-fashioned way:

• Is the metal available?

• Can it be delivered?

• Can it be used tomorrow?

• Can it be removed from the vault?

That is real price discovery.

When Shanghai gold trades hundreds of dollars above COMEX, or when silver clears dramatically higher than Western spot, it is not “mispricing.”

It is the physical market speaking plainly.

And physical markets always speak last.

The New Reality: Weighted Price Discovery

Serious allocators no longer ask:

“What is the price of gold?”

They ask:

“Where would this metal clear if I needed to transact?”

That answer is no longer COMEX alone.

In practice, physical metal is now valued using a weighted framework:

• A Western paper reference (COMEX/LBMA)

• A physical clearing reference (Shanghai / OTC Asia / Middle East)

The result is not an extreme number — it is a fair, realizable range.

This is how:

• Private banks

• Vault lenders

• Family offices

• OTC bullion desks

actually think — even if they don’t advertise it.

Why Physical Holders Are Calm — and Paper Holders Are Not

Owners of allocated physical gold and silver are not panicking.

They understand three things:

1. Their metal is deliverable

2. Their metal clears globally

3. Their metal is not forced to settle at a screen price

The fear sits elsewhere.

It sits with holders of:

• ETFs

• Unallocated accounts

• Futures contracts

• Synthetic exposure

Those instruments must rely on paper price integrity.

And when paper prices diverge sharply from physical clearing prices, confidence — not metal — becomes the scarce asset.

COMEX Is Not “Wrong” — It’s Just No Longer Supreme

This is not an attack on COMEX.

COMEX still matters for:

• Hedging

• Short-term liquidity

• Financial structuring

• U.S. market plumbing

But it is no longer the final authority on the value of physical metal.

That authority is migrating — quietly, steadily, and irreversibly — to markets that

insist on delivery.

The Bottom Line

Physical gold and silver are not valued the way ETFs are.

They are valued by:

• Availability

• Jurisdiction

• Deliverability

• Demand intensity

In today’s environment, that means:

• COMEX informs

• Shanghai confirms

• Physical markets decide

The only investors who should be anxious are those who discover — too late — that what they owned was a price reference, not a metal.

Integritas Macro Intelligence

Capital preservation in a world where price discovery is changing.