Given gold’s run to record intraday highs 15 times so far this year, silver may not be first thought when investing in precious metals.
But the white metal might soon take the stage in what one expert described as a “powerful” surge to its highest pricing on record.
Peter Spina, founder and president of investor websites GoldSeek.com and SilverSeek.com, advised investors seeking chance to play gold and silver bull markets to consider “silver is a hidden, precious gem.”
Currently, silver (SI00) (SIK25), a far smaller market in terms of trading volume, has lagged the surge in gold (GC00) (GCJ25).
Dow Jones Market Data shows that gold crossed $3,000 an ounce on Comex this month for the first time ever and has so far this year recorded 15 record intraday highs. Silver, meantime, finished Friday at $33.49 an ounce, more than $15 below its all-time settlement high of $48.70 from Jan. 17, 1980. That record high, corrected for inflation, would be $199.73.
Silver’s year-to– date increase was 14.5%, hardly higher than the ascent of 14.4% for gold.
The gold-to—silver ratio, which keeps trading above 90 troy ounces of silver for one precious gold ounce, shows how gold’s ascent has forced silver prices higher. From a precious monetary standpoint, this is “in the extreme,” he said, although in major bull-market runs silver often lags gold.
Senior financial analyst Trevor Yates of Global X notes that “just how cheap it is relative to gold” is the most remarkable feature of silver right now.
Since the late 1980s, the typical ratio between the two metals has been roughly 70 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, according to a January analysis from Sprott, which notes that the current high ratio shows silver is undervalued relative to gold.
Correcting catch-up
Until “market excitement comes and sees investors and speculators flood the tiny silver market, and explode the price higher and faster than gold,” Spina said, implying that the moment for that may be almost here. Silver prices tend to lag gold prices.
“Fundamentals in the market right now are really in favor of igniting a much more serious and powerful run in silver prices over the next months.” Peter Spina; SilverSeek.com
Silver has a lot of catching up to do, he said, and “fundamentals in the market right now are really in favor of igniting a much more serious and powerful run in silver prices over the coming months.”
The Silver Institute projects that the world silver market will show a notable supply shortfall for a fifth consecutive year in 2025. With silver-mine output expected to reach a seven-year high, this year’s global silver supply is expected to be 1.05 billion ounces, highest of eleven years.
At 1.2 billion ounces, that would surpass supply even if it would still fall short of world demand, which is predicted to stay “stable”.
Despite years-long structural shortage for silver, net disinvestment—defined as a withdrawal of investment—from Western silver exchange-traded fundholders had managed to keep silver prices under control claimed Spina.
Investing in silver is returning now that ETF selling has turned into purchasing since strong investment demand is meeting the historical demand for industrial silver demands. “The use of silver is everywhere in our modern life,” Spina observed, and much more so with growing demand from green-energy uses.
The Silver Institute’s late January assessment indicated that early in 2025 market mood toward silver had changed, mostly in response to macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns that underlie inflows into safe-haven assets.
It cautioned, however, that prospective tariffs under the Trump administration and their effect on global economic development, particularly in China, would most certainly “restrain investor enthusiasm across the broader industrial metals complex.” “That, in turn, may be the “major drag on silver investing in the coming months, even though Silver’s actual industrial demand is projected to remain solid,” the Silver Institute stated.
Against the backdrop of tariff concerns, the precious-metal market has not only witnessed significant gold but also silver imports into the U.S., Spina noted.
“We really need cheap silver, but tariffed silver [would cause a notable increase in the final price],” he remarked. “Access to untaxed actual silver entering the U.S. is in great demand. That puts actual strain on current sources.”
Spina also mentioned short positions that can cause panic and under which case “suddenly a true silver-squeeze scenario occurs.” Under such circumstances, the silver “could really take off.”
Though demand for silver in solar panels remains strong, Global X’s Yates said he is positive on silver and expects it to profit from any resurgence in global industrial and manufacturing activity.
Regarding investor opportunities, he said Global X prefers metal miners since they provide more leverage to a shift in the underlying commodity prices. Yates said the Global X Silver Miners ETF SIL offers investors a “diverse set of holdings, reducing idiosyncratic production risks associated with individual companies.”
Regarding silver prices, Spina stated in a more orderly market free from a short squeeze, the price of silver seems ready to “head up to and likely well over $40 an ounce in the coming months, with the price accelerating to and past $50 an ounce under a real rush for supplies.”
A rush for supplies might also result in some kind of scenario whereby a “frenzy of buyers spike the price into a much more dramatic rise” toward $75 to $100 an ounce, he observed. Real physical-price squeeze potential is building.
However, he said, the more likely situation is $40 to $50 by year’s end.
