2025-12-27 14:26:24

In the late 1970s, a shocking speculative storm unfolded in the precious metals market. The cause sounded simple: two oil magnates spotted a severely undervalued commodity.

The Hunt family made their fortune in oil, but the nationalization of Libyan oil fields cost them over $4 billion. This huge loss prompted them to seek new investment avenues. Silver caught their eye — at the time, priced at around $2 per ounce, with industrial demand (photography, electronics) and investment demand (hedging inflation) coexisting, making it look like a foolproof deal.

They teamed up with the Saudi royal family and several brokers to secretly accumulate silver through offshore accounts. By 1979, this consortium controlled over 50% of the global silver inventory — 120 million ounces of spot silver plus 50 million ounces of futures. They also built large long positions on the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

The frenzy began in August 1979. In just five months, silver prices skyrocketed from $6 to $50.35 per ounce, an increase of over 800%. The market spiraled out of control. Consumers started melting down silver jewelry to sell the silver; Indian brides sold their heirloom silver jewelry at low prices for cash. Supply was completely squeezed dry, and prices surged even higher.

This is the famous "Silver Thursday" crisis — ultimately ending in a market crash that left the Hunt brothers with over $1.7 billion in debt. This upheaval not only rewrote the rules of precious metals trading but also became one of the most cautionary lessons in financial regulation history. To this day, it still reminds market participants: no matter how carefully a manipulation plan is designed, it cannot escape the punishment of market laws.

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CoconutWaterBoy

· 15h ago

This is the real scene of the big players' dreams shattering, with a tuition fee of $1.7 billion... Is it expensive?

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FrontRunFighter

· 15h ago

ngl this is basically the original sandwich attack... hunt brothers just did it on comex instead of mempool. classic dark forest tactics—accumulate 50% supply, squeeze the market, watch retail get liquidated. the mechanics are identical to what we see in defi today, just slower and with more offshore accounts lmao

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ForkTrooper

· 15h ago

A typical greedy case, an 800% increase sounds exciting but ultimately resulted in a loss of 1.7 billion, why bother? The bubble will always burst when it reaches its peak; it should have been obvious. Watching the Indian bride sell her dowry is heartbreaking; the game played by the wealthy hurts the lower classes. History repeats itself. Aren't some of the big players in the crypto world still using the same tricks? Retail investors always end up holding the bag at high prices. Secretly hoarding offshore accounts... familiar tactics. Change a name or asset, but the essence remains the same. Controlling 50% of the inventory and still unable to stabilize the price—what does that say? The market is always smarter than you. Silver back in the day is just like some projects today—a group hyping it up, and those rushing in at the end become the sacrificial lambs.

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ParallelChainMaxi

· 15h ago

This is a classic case of greed leading to overreach, and in the end, it was still beaten down by the market.

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GigaBrainAnon

· 15h ago

A typical big player trying to manipulate the market ends up being taught a lesson by the market. Are there still people in Web3 repeating this old script?

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