🔥 Bitcoin at $118K. Silver at $38. Next Week? Kaboom.

If you thought this week was exciting

💥 What Just Happened to Silver and Bitcoin — And What’s Coming Next Week

By Kerry Lutz — July 13, 2025

Author of The World According to Martin Armstrong buy it now

Last week was the week everything started to crack.

Bitcoin broke $118,000. Silver touched $38.59 and closed at $38.32, its highest since 2011. And neither move was driven by Reddit memes or TikTok influencers. This was real. Structural. Systemic.

Let’s break down what happened — and what’s coming next.

🪙 SILVER: THE DETONATION PHASE HAS BEGUN

Silver didn’t spike because of a short squeeze campaign. That’s fantasy. The “squeeze campaign” isn’t what triggers the blow-up. It’s just adding oxygen to a fire already raging under the floorboards of the financial system.What we saw was the early phase of commercial signal failure — the exact moment when the paper market starts to decouple from physical reality.

This isn’t like GME. It’s not a meme stock trade.

It’s a slow-burning, fundamental failure of trust in synthetic silver markets—and we’re hitting the ignition point.

Here’s what went down:

• 📉 COMEX inventories continued shrinking — especially registered ounces. We’re not out of metal, but we’re getting real close to not being able to deliver metal.

• 🧻 Retail stackers weren’t selling. In fact, the opposite happened — more war nickels, 40% Kennedys, and junk silver vanished from dealer sites.

• 🧠 The big buyers? If they’re buying physical, they’re hedging by shorting the paper market, which actually masks the squeeze temporarily.

• 🔔 The coming tell? CME will raise margin requirements on silver futures if the price action continues — the most reliable panic indicator there is.

But the real warning sign came not from the headlines — but from the tape:

Every dip in silver was aggressively bought. And then came the Friday close, a day when they always slam the metals, especially in the lazy days of summer.

Instead? Silver held above $37.50.

And before that — on June 30, it closed the month above $36 — the highest monthly close in over a decade.

That wasn’t a rally.

That was a signal — a red flare in the night sky warning the shorts: You’re out of time.

That is a breakout with consequences.

₿ BITCOIN: THE FUSE IS LIT

Bitcoin did what silver is about to do. It shrugged off weak hands, powered through resistance at $115,000, and hit $118,500.

This wasn’t a fluke — it was a short gamma squeeze driven by:

• 🧨 Forced liquidation of short positions above $115K

• 🧠 Institutional FOMO buying layered in

• ⚡ ETF inflows accelerating (BlackRock, Fidelity)

• 🏛️ Macro backdrop: The Fed whispering pivot and Powell hinting “we’re done with hikes”

What does that mean?

Bitcoin is already functioning as a global monetary hedge — Gresham’s Law in real time. No one’s using BTC to buy lattes. They’re using it to escape collapsing fiat.

🧩 THIS ISN’T JUST A PRICE MOVE — IT’S A SYSTEMIC TELL

You’re watching two monetary alternatives (one digital, one metallic) breaking free from their handlers. And here’s the kicker:

This isn’t retail doing it. It’s the system breaking under its own weight.

We said it last time — real short squeezes aren’t organized. They’re accidents.

• Someone at a bullion bank misjudges risk.

• A sovereign fund demands physical and refuses cash settlement.

• An ETF issues more shares than it can cover.

That’s how this ends. Not with a bang, but with a margin call and no delivery window.

🍿 NEXT WEEK: WHAT TO WATCH

This coming week could be the firework finale — or the calm before the next spike. Either way, it’s going to be loud.

🧭 Silver:

• Can we break and hold $40? That’s the tripwire.

• Watch dealer availability and COMEX registered drops — those are the cracks in the dam.

• CME might try to suppress with another margin hike. If they do and it fails, it’s game over.

🧭 Bitcoin:

• $120,000 is the next test. If it clears and holds, $135K is in play fast.

• Watch options expiries and ETF flows midweek.

• Political volatility will add rocket fuel — especially if capital controls are floated or central banks talk digital currencies.

💣 FINAL TAKE: THE DOMINOS ARE LINED UP

We’re past theory now. This is happening. The price action is real, the signals are loud, and the confidence cracks are spreading.

Silver at $38.32 and Bitcoin at $118,000 aren’t flukes — they’re distress signals from a system running out of trust.

The banks may still think they’re in control.

But next week?

The market may decide otherwise.

👇 Stay tuned and share:

Let’s make some noise — share this with anyone who still thinks silver’s just jewelry and Bitcoin’s just tulips. The endgame is underway.

— Kerry

👉 Read The World According to Martin Armstrong for deeper context on what’s coming. You’ll see why both silver and Bitcoin are escape routes in a collapsing cycle.