I just saw what happened in the markets on Friday, and it was quite wild. Copper and gold prices suddenly plummeted after a crazy week at the London Metal Exchange. Copper fell nearly 4% from a high of $14,500 per ton, closing near $13,000. Silver lost 5.9% and gold fell 4%. It seems there were some technical issues on the exchange and significant changes in Chinese traders' positions (i.e., holdings/positions).

What’s interesting is that this didn’t just affect traditional markets. Traders betting on cryptocurrencies through tokenized copper, gold, and other metals products took a heavy hit. There were liquidations of approximately $120 million in the last 24 hours. Contracts linked to silver were the most affected, with $32 million in losses, but there were also significant losses in copper and gold futures. Tokens like XAU and XAUT fell more than 7%.

This shows something many of us have been noticing: traders are increasingly using crypto platforms as an alternative for making macro trades. When metals were rising earlier in the week, everyone piled into crypto contracts for leverage and 24/7 access. When prices dropped, those same markets turned into a risk-off exit. It’s as if the crypto market has become a mirror of what’s happening in traditional markets.

A stronger U.S. dollar also played an important role. Speculation about changes at the Federal Reserve pushed the U.S. currency higher, which typically negatively affects dollar-denominated commodities. Copper and gold were the first to suffer.

Despite Friday’s pullback, metals are still one of the strong themes of the year. Copper is still heading toward major weekly gains thanks to supply constraints and demand from electrification. Gold continues to attract investment due to political uncertainty. What I find notable is that Bitcoin has behaved fairly independently throughout all of this, suggesting that it’s carving out its own role as a risk asset separate from the broader macro market.