Silver, also known as the “devil’s metal” due to its volatility, has reached record highs this year and is still rising despite short supply, experts say.
The metal’s growth in value has paralleled that of gold, which has soared to more than $4,000 an ounce this year.
Silver prices reached a historic high of $54.47 per troy ounce in mid-October, up 71% year-over-year. It has since pared back some of its gains, but is now growing again despite low supply levels.
“Some were having to ship their silver by plane instead of by cargo ship to meet delivery demand,” Paul Sims, Invesco’s head of EMEA ETF fixed income and commodity product management, told CNBC.
“While we’ve seen higher prices in the past, prices have come down a little bit. Longer term, there’s a different dynamic this time, with silver prices remaining reasonably high and likely continuing to rise for some time to come,” he added.
This is only the third time in the past 50 years that silver prices have peaked in October. Other silver price highs include January 1980, when the Hunt brothers amassed a third of the world’s supply in an attempt to corner the market, and 2011, when silver and gold were embraced as safe-haven assets in the wake of the U.S. debt ceiling crisis.
Silver price since the beginning of the year
“Silver is only about one-tenth the size of the gold market, and this short squeeze obviously caught a small number of investors off guard in a way,” Sims said.
Unlike previous waves of investment, the 2025 silver boom relied on a combination of low supply and high demand from India, as well as industrial needs and tariffs.
“After Liberation Day, the price of gold soared, but the price of silver actually fell a little bit, and the gold-silver ratio jumped to over 100,” Sims said, referring to the gold-silver ratio, which reflects how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold.
A low ratio means gold is relatively cheap, while a high ratio means silver is undervalued and could rise. In April, this ratio reached a historic high.
“Risk managers at financial and industrial institutions didn’t want any metals to leave the United States for fear that they would come back, say, 35% higher,” said Lorna O’Connell, head of EMEA and Asia market analysis at Stone X.
As autumn progressed, demand for silver peaked, especially as India’s monsoon and harvest season drew to a close.
“Farmers don’t really like banks, so their first port of call after harvest tends to be gold, and more recently silver,” O’Connell said.
India is also the world’s largest consumer of silver, with around 4,000 tonnes used each year, mainly in jewellery, tableware and decorative items.
This autumn’s silvery charm coincided with Diwali, India’s biggest holiday and a five-day festival of lights celebrating prosperity and good fortune.
shortage of supply
Gold has traditionally been the favorite, but this year silver, an affordable investment option in a country where about 55% of the population relies on agriculture for a living, outperformed other metals.
On October 17, silver prices in India soared, rising 85% since the beginning of the year to hit a record high of Rs 170,415 per kg.
However, 80% of India’s silver supply is imported. The UK has traditionally been India’s biggest silver supplier, although the UAE and China are increasingly supporting that demand.
But London’s coffers have been emptied rapidly in recent years. As of June 2022, the London Bullion Market Association held 31,023 tonnes of silver. By March 2025, that amount had fallen by about a third to 22,126 tonnes, the lowest in years.
“People don’t necessarily see what’s going on in the vault,” O’Connell said. “And it had gotten to the point where there was basically no available metal left in London.”
October’s tightness was such that traders had to pay much higher borrowing costs, or lease fees, to close positions.
“At one stage, overnight borrowing was costing 200% on an annualized basis, which was very stressful for many people, to say the least,” Mr O’Connell said.
As with other precious and rare metals, supply of silver is always an issue. The Silver Institute’s 2025 World Silver Survey estimates that mining production has declined over the past decade, particularly in Latin America.
“Over the past 12 months or so, we’ve started to turn our primary surplus into a deficit for three reasons: vehicle electrification, artificial intelligence and solar power,” O’Connell said.
“Right now, a standard electric vehicle contains about 25 grams of silver, and a large EV may contain 50 grams of silver as part of its components,” Sims said.
“Moving to these solid-state silver batteries could require more than a kilogram of silver per electric vehicle,” he added.
In addition, silver has higher thermal and electrical conductivity than other metals, and its value is expected to continue to shine in the future as demand for EVs, AI, renewable energy, etc. increases.
“Silver bridges the gap between precious and industrial metals. There are some great use cases for silver as we move into a more electrified world, including advances in technology, batteries and solar panels,” Sims said.
