I did some research and I found that there is some misinterpretation. The gold cover ratio is not a measure of leverage in any way. It is the ratio of the value of total value of the gold futures contracts on the exchange to the amount of deliverable physical gold held by the exchange. Without knowing how these contracts are settled and hedged it is difficult to gain any information or insight from this number.
There will almost always be more open interest outstanding contract gold then gold at COMEX warehouses simply because the vast majority of COMEX participants do not ask for delivery of gold and usually settle in cash or roll forward their contracts.
For comparison, consider CME Group's BTC futures. CME Group's Bitcoin futures open interest is 28160 BTC, yet they hold
0 deliverable BTC. The BTC cover ratio is infinity! That is not an issue or even remarkable because the contracts are settled in cash, and there is no need for the actual BTC.
Now, I agree that a ratio of 542:1 is unprecedented, but what it means going forward is not clear to anyone from what I can tell.
First they introduce fractional reserve by diluting US dollar at a ratio of 10:1, then they introduce the same “fractional reserve” on gold at a ratio of 542:1, lastly bitcoin “fractional reserve at
28160:0??
That’s absurdity! The bank run work simply due to the facts that bank has failed to secure the liquidity required by the depositor at the time of crisis, I don’t want to guess when will be the next bank run, or it would be the gold having a run or bitcoin on the run. Someone would get into the troubles, and it wouldn’t take a genius to guess who are them.
BTW the 542:1 ratio only take account into comex’s contract, who are the borrowers that going to get busted? I think the winners and losers in this investment is clearly selected and not by choice.