Silver has long played a secondary role to gold — but in 2025, it has begun challenging it for the spotlight. Often dubbed “the poor man’s gold,” silver offers both an inflation hedge and exposure to industrial growth, giving it a uniquely dual appeal.

This year, the white metal has staged an exceptional rally. Prices surged to their highest levels in years, breaking multiple records. Silver surpassed its historic peak of $48.70 per ounce from April 2011, reaching $54.08 per ounce on October 17, 2025, in global markets. In India, spot prices climbed to a record ₹1,76,304 on October 14, 2025. October 2025 will be remembered as a watershed month for silver — not only did it hit a new all-time high, it also delivered its strongest monthly return ever.

The performance is striking: year-to-date returns exceed 70%, outpacing every major asset class, including equities, gold, and commodities.

Kineta Chhainwala, Assistant Vice President for commodity research at Kotak Securities, said silver’s outperformance was driven by a blend of safe-haven demand, a weaker dollar, lower interest rates, and strong industrial usage.

She added that silver lease rates have risen after the metal was included in the US list of critical minerals — a sign of tightening physical supply. Lease rates represent the annual cost of borrowing silver in the London bullion market; higher rates indicate scarcity.

Rise of silver ETFs

Traditionally, demand for gold and silver rises ahead of festivals such as Dhanteras and Diwali. With rising geopolitical tensions and global uncertainty, investors have been shifting more aggressively toward precious metals.

The sharp rise in silver prices relative to gold — combined with festive-season demand — triggered massive inflows into silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs), leading to shortages and causing these ETFs to trade at steep premiums over the underlying metal. The imbalance forced fund houses to temporarily halt new subscriptions to protect investors and restore stability.

Unlike gold ETFs, which have existed in India for over 20 years, silver ETFs are relatively new. SEBI approved them only in September 2021, with the first launches arriving in 2022 through ICICI Prudential.

In just a few years, interest skyrocketed. Assets under management jumped from ₹2,844.76 crore in October 2023 to ₹12,331 crore in October 2024 — and then to more than ₹37,518 crore by September 2025, more than tripling in a single year.

Data shows silver ETFs delivered a three-year average return of 39.14%, compared with 34.86% for gold ETFs.

In September 2025 alone, monthly inflows hit ₹5,342 crore — 28% of all passive-fund inflows — while gold ETFs attracted ₹8,363 crore. Combined, gold and silver accounted for about 72% of total flows, reflecting investors’ growing reliance on precious metals to diversify portfolios amid global instability.

With the advent of silver ETFs, participation has become far easier for retail investors compared with physical buying or futures trading.

Why is silver shining?

A supply-demand imbalance

The core reason behind silver’s surge is a persistent supply deficit. Global supply has lagged demand for five straight years, according to the Silver Institute. Another deficit is anticipated in 2025 amid weak mine output and lower recycling.

Supply is projected at around 1.03 billion ounces in 2025 versus demand of 1.148 billion ounces. Over five years, demand has exceeded supply by roughly 800 million ounces, with a fresh deficit of about 187 million ounces expected this year.

Because much of global silver output is a by-product of mining other metals, supply is slow to respond even when prices rise.

Industrial demand boom

Explosive growth in clean-energy industries has created immense demand pressure. Solar panels are the single largest consumer of silver, followed by electric vehicles, electronics, 5G components, and semiconductors.

Industrial demand is estimated at 680 million ounces in 2025 — more than half of global consumption.

The new safe haven

Beyond industrial strength, inflation pressures, geopolitical crises, and weak economic outlooks have lifted investment demand for silver. Global silver ETF holdings have risen to 0.82 billion ounces — the highest level since July 2022.

A century of dramatic cycles

Over the past century, silver has experienced long stretches of stagnation punctuated by dramatic spikes. It traded at $0.69 per ounce in 1925, crossed $1 only in 1962, doubled by 1967, and soared during the inflationary 1970s to reach $35.52 in 1980 during the infamous Hunt Brothers squeeze.

Prices then collapsed to $5 by 1982 and remained subdued until the post-2008 rally, which sent silver to $48.20 in 2011. It broke that level once again in 2025.

Will the rally continue?

Despite powerful momentum, analysts warn of volatility. They attribute the current surge to China’s shift toward clean energy, the disruption at Indonesia’s Grasberg mine, strong ETF inflows, and robust Asian demand.

Demand is expected to remain strong thanks to solar-energy expansion and EV adoption, while supply remains constrained by underinvestment in new mining projects.

Reports such as Motilal Oswal’s “Unprecedented Silver Market Boom 2030” argue the metal is in the early stages of a long structural bull market.

What should investors do?

Silver can be an effective tool for portfolio diversification and inflation hedging, with potential to outperform gold during economic recoveries.

Experts caution against chasing short-term buying frenzies and instead advise using silver as a strategic asset offering both industrial upside and inflation protection.

If your portfolio allocates around 15% to precious metals, a 50-50 split between gold and silver may reduce volatility while maximizing the complementary strengths of both metals.

US stock indices fell at the start of Monday’s session, the first trading day of December, pressured by a rise in US Treasury yields.

The decline came as a wave of selling hit most technology shares, amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding the valuation of artificial-intelligence companies.

In trading as of 17:59 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% (225 points) to 47,491. The S&P 500 dipped 0.3% (20 points) to 6,830, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3% (77 points) to 23,288.

Copper prices rose on Monday, the first trading session of December, supported by stronger bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut as well as growing expectations of higher industrial-metal prices.

UBS expects copper to climb next year, citing tightening supply conditions due to ongoing mine disruptions, along with structurally strong long-term demand driven by electrification trends and investment in clean energy, according to a research note published last month.

In its latest revision, the bank raised its March 2026 price forecast by $750 per metric ton to $11,500, and increased its June and September 2026 targets by $1,000 each to $12,000 and $12,500. The bank also issued a new December 2026 target of $13,000 per ton.

UBS lifted its market-deficit projections to 230,000 tons for 2025, up from 53,000 previously, and to 407,000 tons for 2026, compared with an earlier estimate of 87,000. The bank noted that falling inventories and persistent supply risks will keep the market tight.

It added that this year’s mine disruptions — including production issues at Freeport-McMoRan’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia, a slow recovery in Chile, and recurring protests in Peru — underscore structural supply constraints likely to persist through 2026.

Freeport-McMoRan said last week it plans to resume output at Grasberg by July, following a fatal accident that halted operations two months earlier.

UBS also trimmed its forecast for refined-copper production growth to 1.2% in 2025 and 2.2% in 2026, citing declining ore grades and operational challenges.

Global copper demand is expected to grow 2.8% in both 2025 and 2026, driven by electric vehicles, renewable-energy installations, power-grid investment, and data-center expansion.

The bank said any short-term weakness in prices is likely to be temporary, recommending that investors maintain long positions in copper or use volatility-selling strategies.

In US trading, copper futures for March delivery rose 0.4% to $5.29 per pound as of 15:38 GMT.

Bitcoin fell sharply in Asian trading on Monday as the new month opened with renewed turbulence across the cryptocurrency market, following an incident at the decentralized finance platform Yearn Finance that sparked fresh concerns over liquidity.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped 5.3% to trade at $86,075.6 as of 01:07 a.m. ET (06:07 GMT).

Bitcoin slid to an intraday low of $85,638.3 over the past 24 hours and has now fallen more than 16% for the month of November.

The sell-off came after Yearn Finance said it was investigating an “incident” in its yETH liquidity pool. Reports indicated that a flaw had allowed an attacker to mint an extraordinarily large amount of yETH tokens, effectively flooding the pool with incorrect supply.

In simple terms, the exploit allowed the attacker to “create tokens out of thin air,” undermining confidence in the pool’s backing assets and prompting traders to rush for the exit.

The disruption triggered immediate volatility across bitcoin-linked assets, with other major cryptocurrencies also tumbling.

U.S. rate-cut bets in focus

The decline followed a steep monthly drop for bitcoin in November, with selling pressure persisting despite improving sentiment around U.S. monetary policy — which had supported risk assets late last month.

Expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in December strengthened sharply last week, driven by signs of cooling economic growth and easing inflationary pressures.

Traders are currently pricing an 87% chance of a 25-basis-point cut at the December 9–10 meeting, compared with roughly 40% a week earlier. Although the prospect of easier monetary policy had initially helped steady crypto markets, the Yearn Finance incident overshadowed that optimism.

Adding to the uncertainty were comments from U.S. President Donald Trump over the weekend saying he already knows whom he will nominate as the next Federal Reserve chair — without revealing the name. The statement intensified speculation around potential candidates, including former White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, known for his dovish stance on monetary policy.

Crypto prices today: Ether down 6%, XRP drops more than 7%

Most major altcoins slumped on Monday amid a fresh wave of panic.

Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 5.7% to $2,826.92.

XRP, the third-largest token, dropped 7.3% to $2.03.