Triple-digit silver? What’s next after the ‘sleeping beauty’ metal’s 115% rally
Silver has been on a winning streak this year that’s seen the metal more than double in value, smash multiple records and outperform gold. Since the beginning of the year, the so-called “Devil’s metal” has gained 114.6%, with spot silver last seen trading at around $61.96 an ounce after touching a record high of $62.88 in Wednesday’s session. A day earlier, silver surpassed the $60-an-ounce mark for the first time. XAG= YTD line Spot silver price Silver futures have also surged, rising by 113% over the course of 2025 and surpassing $61 for the first time this week. Supply constraints, demand for safe haven assets and silver’s prominence as an industrial metal have all helped fuel the run on the metal that has seen it outperform gold this year. $100 silver? Part of silver’s rising appeal is its broadening role in key industrial sectors, Paul Williams, managing director of gold and silver supplier Solomon Global, told CNBC. He noted that the metal also offers investors a store of value amid uncertainty or volatility. “Silver’s dual identity as both an essential industrial resource and a store of value continues to draw in retail and institutional buyers,” Williams said. “For individuals who see gold as increasingly out of reach but want exposure to the ongoing precious-metals boom cycle, silver is proving — and I believe will continue to be — a compelling alternative. All the major tailwinds for silver remain in place; however, we should expect increased volatility.” Silver is a critical component in products across various industries, and is used in the production of electrical switches, solar panels, and cell phones. It’s also used in the hardware and infrastructure driving the AI boom. “Silver’s superior electrical and thermal conductivity properties are increasingly essential to the technological transformation driving the global economy,” the Silver Institute said in a report published Wednesday. “As a result, global silver industrial demand is poised to grow further as demand from vital technology sectors accelerates over the next five years. Sectors such as solar energy, automotive electric vehicles and their infrastructure, and data centers and artificial intelligence will drive industrial demand higher through 2030.” Solomon Global’s Williams first made the call for $100 silver back in October, when the metal was approaching the $50 mark, saying at the time that he believed it would more than double by late 2026. “With silver now trading above $60, up roughly 25% in a month, that trajectory remains firmly intact,” he told CNBC. “The silver supply/demand mismatch continues to boost the price of silver [and] the longer-term fundamentals underpinning the so-called Devil’s Metal are only strengthening. Any pullbacks are likely to be temporary pauses rather than a change in direction, given the structural tightness of the market. The outlook for silver in 2026 is bright.” Philippe Gijsels, chief strategy officer at BNP Paribas Fortis, is also bullish when it comes to silver. “When undervaluation, deficits as far as the eye can see and a new industrial revolution meet, market magic happens,” Gijsels told CNBC. “That is in a nutshell the story of silver in 2025.” Gijsels struck an optimistic tone when asked if silver had further to run next year, although he predicted volatility along the way as profit-taking could spark some “violent drawdowns” before the metal hits $100 an ounce. “We already argued some time ago … that this sleeping beauty of commodity land, which has been in deficit for quite a number of years, would finally wake up and double the $50 [price] that had been in place for multiple decades,” he said, referring to Economist Koen De Leus, with whom he co-authored the 2023 book “The New World Economy in 5 Trends.” “It is clear that we are now in a secular bull market which could well lead us in the triple digits over the course of 2026 … This is not the end but the beginning of what could be a very nice story.” Silver has outperformed gold this year, even with gold being on a record-smashing run of its own. Spot gold — widely seen as a safe haven asset — has surged by around 60% year-to-date. The gold-silver ratio, which measures how many ounces of silver buy one ounce of gold, has fallen notably from its peak in April, when gold prices spiked amid a broad sell-off driven by President Donald Trump’s tariffs announcements. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, told CNBC that even with gold trading at an increasingly narrower premium to silver, the latter continues to look cheap relative to gold. The gold-silver ratio — currently at its lowest level since 2021 — was last seen hovering around the 68 mark. “The post-1971 average in the gold/silver ratio is around 66,” Mould said. “Prior silver bull runs have seen that figure go below 40.” How to trade silver Mould said those looking to invest in silver have options beyond holding physical coins or bars, which can come with high storage or insurance costs. “There is the option to buy an exchange-traded commodity (ETC), a listed instrument which is designed to track the performance of silver, and then deliver that performance to investors, minus the running costs of the ETC,” he said. “Investors can [also] look to buy shares in silver miners, as they are likely to show gearing into the silver price: their substantial fixed costs mean that profits and cashflow (and thus potentially dividends) are likely to go up faster than the silver price, although they are likely to go down faster too if silver falls, all other things being equal,” he added. London is home to Fresnillo and Hochschild Mining , both of which are strong performers this year, Mould noted, but cautioned that invested in mining stocks requires research into the company’s financial strength in order to asses risks such as geology, weather and political unrest. Mould also pointed to passive tracker funds like the Global X Silver Miners ETF or iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF, which are designed to follow and deliver the performance of a basket of silver mining shares from around the world.
