By Tyler Durden

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 at 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):