Silver, the devil’s metal, has seen its value shoot up like a bat out of hell over the past year, climbing past US$90 per ounce recently.
Historically considered gold’s poor cousin, silver gained greater respect from precious metals investors in 2025. Its outperformance can be attributed to several factors.
“Silver’s strength this year has been underpinned by a combination of factors, including a persistent supply deficit, strong industrial demand thanks to solar— one of the metal’s primary uses—EVs and electronics, and renewed investment flows into silver as a cheaper alternative to gold,” Ewa Manthey, commodity strategist at ING, said in a recent interview.
“Silver supply is structurally inelastic, with around 70-80% of global silver output coming as a by-product from mines that primarily produce lead, zinc, copper or gold,” Manthey added. That means the silver supply cannot be increased even when prices rise, unless the metals that silver is mined with support higher production also.
The silver price has also received a lift from sentiment that the U.S. government could include the metal in future tariffs after adding it to the Geological Survey’s list of critical minerals recently.
In addition, according to the Silver Institute, the silver market is poised for a fifth straight annual deficit in 2025 as constrained production is pressured by rising industrial and investment demand.
