Precious Metals Industry Demands Congress Loosen New York Control - June 21, 2026

A broad coalition representing dozens of key stakeholders across all segments of the U.S. precious metals industry formally called on Congress this week to advance the System Integrity through Licensed Vault Expansion & Resilience Act (SILVER Act).

The SILVER Act is bipartisan legislation designed to address national security risks by strengthening the resilience, competitiveness, and geographic diversity of America's precious metals market infrastructure.

The current structure of exchange-approved precious metals depositories concentrates regulated futures market storage capacity within a small geographic area around New York City, creating vulnerabilities for financial markets, supply chains, and national security.

"Geographic redundancy is a foundational principle of resilient infrastructure and risk management across critical industries and financial systems," the coalition said in a letter dated June 11, 2026 signed by more than 40 companies and trade organizations. The current single-region dependency is “creating dangerous concentration risks, limiting competition and regional participation, and imposing artificial constraints on the marketplace.”

The SILVER Act (SB 4621 and H.R. 8007) is sponsored by Sen. James Risch (R-ID), Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC), Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID), and Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) and is supported by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig.

The bipartisan bill would not require approval of any specific depository. Instead, it would establish greater transparency and objective evaluation standards for depository approvals while ensuring that geographic concentration risk and broader public-interest considerations are addressed via the inclusion of several qualified depositories across the U.S.

The coalition argues that precious metals play an increasingly important role not only as financial assets but also as critical inputs for defense, aerospace, electronics, medical technology, and energy production. As a result, disruptions affecting a narrow region around New York City could have severe consequences extending well beyond the precious metals market itself.

“Passage of this simple bipartisan bill would modernize the nation’s precious metals infrastructure by promoting regional diversification, reducing costs, strengthening domestic supply chains, enabling new innovative digital products, and expanding market liquidity and access — while better aligning the system with the realities of a national marketplace,” the coalition pointed out to Congressional leaders.

Turning to the price action, it was a rough week for gold, silver, and platinum.

Gold is currently trading at $4,230 an ounce, down about 3% from last Friday's level. Silver has also pulled back, checking in at $68.70 an ounce, a decline of roughly 2% on the week.

Platinum is trading at $1,718 an ounce, off 6% from last Friday's $1,831 level, while palladium comes in at $1,295 an ounce, essentially unchanged from a week ago.

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