Anyone watching Tuesday’s US market cash session sees red across the board. One of the strongest sell programs in months dumped stocks at the start of trading on Tuesday, and equity volatility spiked to the upside. As Nomura warned looking the arcane gamma topology underpinning the market, this could be the beginning of a market storm. And ahead of what could be further market turmoil, Palantir Technologies warned about an upcoming “black swan event,” according to Bloomberg.
The software company, co-founded by the technology billionaire Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp, wrote in a filing last week that it stockpiled $50.7 million in gold bars earlier this month. The filing also said it acquired technology startups, blank-check companies, and even cryptocurrencies.
Palantir had previously said it would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for its services, along with payment in precious metals (however Bloomberg quoted a spokeswoman from Palantir who said no clients have paid in Bitcoin or gold yet).
Shyam Sankar, the COO of Palantir, said accepting nontraditional forms of payment “reflects more of a worldview,” adding: “you have to be prepared for a future with more black swan events.”
Palantir’s 100-ounce gold bars are expected to be stored in an undisclosed vault in the US Northeast.
“The company can take physical possession of the gold bars stored at the facility at any time with reasonable notice,” Palantir wrote.
None of this comes as a surprise that the loss of faith in those “who control the money” [Federal Reserve] – cryptocurrencies and precious physical metals are becoming a popular hedge for when the system implodes.
Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale was quoted not too long ago, saying, “idiots are running the Fed.” Lonsdale was referencing the unconventional monetary policy that has helped balloon the national debt by over $5 trillion since early March 2020, to $28.4 trillion and set the US dollar on collision course with loss of reserve status.
What is remarkable is that foreign holders of US Treasury Debt accounted for only a quarter of the spiking US National Debt (red line, right scale), the second-lowest end-of-quarter percentage since 2007 (via Wolf Street):
Palantir’s move into physical gold and cryptocurrencies is continuing the global de-dollarization trend…
Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg tweeted about Palantir’s gold buying and warning of another “black swan event” by saying: “When the spooks tell you a false flag is coming, a false flag is coming.”
Palantir is not alone as SchiffGold notes that Chinese gold demand rebounded sharply in the first half of 2021 after plummeting in 2020, according to data released by the China Gold Association (CGA). China ranks as the world’s number one gold consumer and the Chinese market has a significant impact on global demand.
Demand was up 69.2%, coming in at just over 547 tons through the first 6 months of the year. China’s year-on-year gold consumption surged 93.9% in the first quarter alone. Gold demand wasn’t just up compared to 2020, a year of economic distress due to coronavirus. It was up 4.49% above pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
