Wonderful year for silver. The shiny metal finally broke the stubborn record high of $49.50/oz set in 2011. Not only that, the numbers grew from strength to strength, setting a brand new record high above $67.00/oz in on 19 December 2025. Silver bullion, especially 1 kg cast bars are selling like hot cakes. Market analysts are calling for silver prices to surpass $100.00/oz in 2026. Some even predicted $500.00/oz. As reported in mainstream media, factors such as supply deficits over the years, solar panels demand, rate cut and inflationary pressures contributed to this remarkable 120% gain in just one single year.
Let’s turn the clock back to April 2011. It all started from the U.S. averted a last minute default. Silver hit all time high of $49.50/oz. CME raised silver margins several times within the month. Silver prices collapsed dramatically and remained well below $25.00/oz for most part of a decade from 2014 till late 2024. Bear in mind, during this period, Quantitative Easing (QE) a.k.a. money printing was already in place. Contributing factors mentioned in the preceding paragraph were reported almost daily in the media. But silver prices hardly headed north.
So what is behind the late 2025 parabolic super bull run? Artificial intelligence and modern trading applications have made the financial landscape totally unrecognisable as compared to a decade ago. Enormous trades in millions or even billions could be executed within seconds. Fortune and bankruptcy are separated by a razor thin thread. So market speculation played a key role. The perfect catalyst – social media. Fake news such as “imminent collapse of USD”, “unprecedented physical silver shortages” and “banking systems meltdown” spread faster than any wild fire mankind has ever seen. Markets plunged into a state of disillusion. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) mentality kicked in. Greed overtook common sense. Speculative bets got bigger.
Although silver could be considered as a safe haven asset in some way, its status is far away from that of gold. Central banks buy gold to support their economies and currencies. There are no official reports of them buying silver for that purpose. Industrial and physical investment demand is a fraction of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) movement. Thus, silver prices are more likely to be influenced by paper trade, rather than physical demand.
In a nutshell, we expect silver prices to pullback and normalise in 2026. Although we agree that silver prices will edge up in the long run, the current market conditions are governed by greed and fear, thus unsustainable in the near term. CME view margin hikes as a way to curb speculative trading. Any consecutive significant margin adjustments from them within a very short time frame will most likely result in the spectacular collapse witnessed in May 2011. Silver must maintain above $50.00/oz throughout 2025 to lay the foundation for the next leg up. However, a 40% to 50% correction is still possible. That’s how unpredictable silver prices are. In our opinion, the support range of $47.00/oz to $50.00/oz sounds logical. If you are still keen to the test the next hurdle, invest with caution and common sense. Silver prices are volatile and wild price swings are not uncommon. As in all parabolic price movements, retail investors are always at the losing end. Good Luck!
Disclaimer: All content is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Precious metals investments involve financial risk. Readers should conduct their own research before making any investment decisions.
