Silver prices surged to a historic high of $80 a troy ounce Monday, smashing a record that had stood for more than four decades and underscoring how a once-sleepy precious metal has become one of the hottest trades of 2025.
Silver futures eclipsed the prior all-time high of $48.70, set in January 1980 during one of the most notorious commodity manias of the 20th century, when the Hunt brothers tried — and failed — to corner the silver market, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Since first spiking to a record $54 in October, silver continued to surpass new highs in October, November and December.
By midday Monday, however, silver pulled back to $71 — but was still worth more than a barrel of oil in futures markets, with U.S. crude ending Friday at $56.74.
Adjusted for inflation, silver would need to soar above $200 an ounce to truly surpass its previous 1980 peak. Still, even in nominal terms, the record had been one of the most enduring in financial history.
“As of last Friday’s close, silver, platinum, and gold surged 169%, 163%, and 73% in 2025,” said Mitch Feierstein, CEO of the Glacier Environmental Fund Limited. “Silver’s historic weekend surge saw prices in Dubai trade above $90. In two weeks, Platinum rose 38% and silver was up over 40% on Dubai trades.”
Feierstein said the extreme price action points to structural stress in the market.
“Abnormally high volatility in price moves on high volumes, as we have seen, generally means that large, short sellers have been squeezed and forced, by exchange rules such as a margin call, to close out gigantic loss-making naked short positions at much higher prices,” he said. “As prices rise, algorithms and momentum traders jump in, pushing prices even higher in markets with tight supply constraints.”
Feierstein cautioned, however, that investors chasing the rally could be late to the party: “Whatever the case, one should never buy at an all-time high but wait for a significant pullback before initiating or adding to a position.”
Silver’s rally has been turbocharged by unusual dislocations between global markets. Prices in London, the hub for physical gold and silver trading, have recently surged to a steep premium over prices in New York — a rare divergence that spooked traders worried about dwindling U.K. supplies.
Earlier this year, large volumes of silver were flown and shipped from London to the U.S. as traders raced to get ahead of potential tariffs. That trans-Atlantic flow could now be reversing.
The result has been a stunning performance. Silver is up nearly 170% year to date, making it one of the best-performing assets of 2025. It has outpaced gold’s roughly 73% jump above $4,500 an ounce and easily beaten the Nasdaq composite’s 17% gain, even as both gold and stocks have also set fresh records this month.
GOLD, SILVER SURGE
Like gold, silver has benefited from investors seeking refuge from inflation, geopolitical turmoil, lofty equity valuations and expectations for lower interest rates.
Gold’s rise has been fueled by its classic role as a safe haven, particularly amid geopolitical tensions, market volatility and growing bets that the Federal Reserve will eventually cut rates — a dynamic that boosts non-yielding assets and weakens the dollar.
Silver, however, has an extra layer of demand that gold lacks: industrial use.
“Like the Nasdaq, silver’s gains have been fueled by the craze over artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and the energy transition,” analysts say.
There is now simply not enough silver to go around. Investors are hoarding precious metals, manufacturers need silver for electronics and clean-energy technologies, and jewelry buyers are trading down from gold as prices climb.
“The amount of metal that is being mined and recycled is less than the amount of metal that is consumed,” said Shree Kargutkar, senior portfolio manager at Sprott Asset Management. “It’s one of those very clear cases of a supply-demand imbalance.”
That imbalance has been exacerbated by fears of tariffs. The U.S. Geological Survey has proposed adding silver to its Critical Minerals List, a designation that could open the door to trade levies similar to those President Trump has imposed on steel, aluminum, lumber and copper products. The threat has prompted widespread stockpiling.
“People are just trying to front-run a potential disruption,” Kargutkar said. “The tariffs have essentially made it so that every warehouse now has to have its own inventory, and that in turn leads to a little bit of hoarding.”
Gold’s surge above $4,000, Citi noted, has also made silver appear comparatively cheap, drawing in investors and jewelry buyers priced out of the yellow metal.
Analysts caution, however, that slowdown in solar development or electronics manufacturing could also cool silver demand.
For now, though, silver’s explosive run reflects a rare convergence of tight supply, surging industrial use, investor fear and speculative momentum — a combination powerful enough to shatter a record that once seemed untouchable.
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