The buzz around gold has rippled through the markets this year – but silver is quietly following along, culminating in a new all-time high that analysts say could double in the coming years. Spot silver breached the $50 mark for the first time last week before gains fell. On Monday, the metal was up 2.4%, trading around $51 an ounce as of 6:20 a.m. in London (1:20 a.m. ET). Meanwhile, silver futures in New York rose 4.5% to $49. Spot silver is up more than 78% since the start of the year, compared to spot gold's gain of just over 50% this year. Both metals have benefited from a rush to safe havens amid volatility in the broader capital markets and, in the case of silver, an underlying supply-demand mismatch. Paul Syms, head of EMEA ETF fixed income and commodity product management at Invesco, told CNBC that gold's record rally this year had prompted investors to allocate capital to other precious metals. “Interest in silver increased when the gold-silver ratio crossed 100x following the post-liberation gold rally,” he said on Friday. “The only time the ratio was above 100x earlier this century was during the pandemic and was followed by a sharp reversal.” XAG = YTD Line Spot Silver Price However, Syms said investors are now looking at silver as a store of value for several reasons, noting that until this week, silver had not hit an all-time high since 2011. This year alone, gold has set 39 new records. And according to Syms, silver also offers practical applications that gold cannot match. The “industrial applications of gold are limited,” he explained. “From an investment perspective, silver is also seen as a store of value, but it also has many industrial applications, especially in electronics and renewable energy technologies.” While he said it was difficult to predict where silver prices would go, Syms emphasized that the 2025 rally had exceeded expectations. “Sentiment towards gold and silver remains positive and investors generally have relatively light holdings, so prices are unlikely to be affected by this being a busy trade subject to profit-taking, especially as shares also remain at all-time highs,” he said. “Indeed, if sentiment remains positive, it is entirely conceivable that silver could continue to rise.” $100 silver? Paul Williams, managing director of gold and silver supplier Solomon Global, attributed silver's rally to “powerful real-world forces,” in contrast to the speculation that drove it to a high in 1980. “A widening structural deficit, record industrial demand and accelerating investments in green technologies are tightening supply and driving up prices,” he said in a note. “While silver does not share gold's full reputation as a safe haven, its dual role as an industrial and store of value continues to attract investors seeking stability and upside potential.” Silver is a crucial component of products in several industries and is used in the production of electrical switches, solar panels and mobile phones. It is also used in the semiconductors that power the AI boom. Williams added that the underlying drivers of the silver market show no signs of tapering, suggesting that the bull run on silver could continue well into 2026. “Despite record levels, silver remains cheap compared to gold,” he said. “Given the current environment, a silver price of $100 is certainly possible by the end of 2026.” This view is shared by Philippe Gijsels, Chief Strategy Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis, who has been predicting $50 silver for over a year and also believes its value could double from new highs. 'Big round numbers are often attractive [investors] “Like a magnet,” he argued. 'Once the price enters the gravitational field of the big numbers, we usually see an acceleration and a buying climax.' However, he said there could be a lull in the rally before prices start rising again. “What typically happens after a huge run like this is we see a lull. We could see a short but rather violent pullback, prices could remain flat for a while, or it could be a combination of both. But somehow the technical overbought condition must be resolved.” Longer term, Gijsels says, the conditions that catalyzed the rally persist, which he believes means there is still room for further upside potential. “Investors have been coming on board since the start of this year. They have rightly understood… that in a world of inflation, a world where volatility and uncertainty are the new normal and where central banks will continue to print money to keep the system going, you need to hold real assets to protect your purchasing power. These real assets are real estate, stocks, wine and perhaps especially precious metals.” “We are still closer to the beginning than the end of what could be one of the greatest bull markets in history,” he argued. “I wouldn't be surprised if silver rose well above $100 in the not-too-distant future.”
