The record price of silver does not mean that a new investment tool has appeared. What does this mean for an investor

Over the past year, silver has tripled in price and has become one of the most profitable investment assets. In terms of its growth, it has overtaken gold, to which it has been tightly bound for a long time. Against this background, Russian investors began to buy silver, in January the average daily trading volume on the Moscow Stock Exchange was 5.4 tons, which is four times higher than last year's level. At the same time, silver remains an important industrial raw material, the cost of which is influenced by purely production factors. Why silver is getting more expensive and what pitfalls there are when buying it — in the material of Izvestia.

How does the value of silver change

For silver, 2025 was a year of historic growth. The value of this precious metal has more than doubled in 12 months — in January, silver was trading at $30 per troy ounce, and ended the year at a record historical high of $72. Only some risky cryptocurrencies and low-liquid stocks could match such profitability in a calendar year.

At the start of 2026, silver continued its impressive growth, continuing to overcome psychological boundaries and update historical highs. By the fourth week of January, the price of silver on the London Precious Metals Market Association reached $95.7 per troy ounce, tripling over the past year. It is expected that the metal will soon overcome the symbolic mark of $ 100 per ounce.

Silver is usually paired with gold and follows its trend, which has also been growing throughout 2025. However, there have been changes in recent months. Silver began to break away from gold and become more expensive at a higher rate. Usually, the value ratio of the two precious metals remains stable, but now it has begun to decline smoothly and dropped below 60 in December last year.

What is the specificity of silver

Silver has a number of significant features. It differs from the same gold in significant practical application. If gold itself is an investment tool and only acts as a raw material for the jewelry industry in a rather small proportion, then silver is of great industrial importance. It is an excellent electrical conductor, is used in batteries and solar panels, is used in coatings for medical devices, and acts as a raw material for affordable jewelry. Silver, like lithium, is growing along with the market for renewable energy and artificial intelligence.

Paradoxically, there is no dedicated silver production cycle in the world. It is extracted as a by-product during the processing of lead-zinc and copper ores. Although silver is the most common precious metal, it ranks only 65th in terms of abundance in the Earth's crust. Native silver is even rarer than gold. The leaders in silver mining are Mexico, Peru and China, which are not expanding its production.

The silver market is characterized as scarce, but this is due only to the high interest of investors. Although there are enough reserves for industrial production, investment demand exceeds the available supply. Silver has become an object of speculation in recent years, the market for exchange-traded receipts (ETFs) for the metal has been growing throughout 2025, and investments in coins and bullion remain relevant. This makes silver noticeably different from other commodities and raw materials that have a surplus in the current economic situation.

At the same time, silver is not a metal in short supply: it is important to distinguish between the short-term market situation, when demand may exceed supply, and the fundamental availability of the metal. From the point of view of the resource base, there is a lot of silver: it is widespread in nature and is mainly mined as an associated product in the production of copper, lead, zinc and gold. Global reserves make it possible to increase supply when the price environment changes.

Why is silver getting more expensive

The reasons for the growth of silver are largely the same as for gold (we discussed the importance of gold growth for an investor's portfolio here). This is the new economic policy of the United States under the leadership of President Donald Trump, which is forcing investors and central banks to resort to safe haven assets. With a weakening dollar, precious metals naturally rise in price. The reduction in Federal Reserve rates, which dropped by 0.75 percentage points over the year, also leads to a surge in interest in gold, followed by silver.

The ongoing instability due to trade wariness between the United States and China, global conflicts and threats of sanctions also make precious metals an attractive asset. Recently, these factors have been compounded by the escalation of tensions between the United States and Europe over Greenland, followed by cautious speculation that Brussels could counter Washington by selling off American assets. This pushes investors even more towards defensive investments.

Gold instead of dollars: why the whole world is buying precious metals

Distrust of the US currency was the reason for the rise of gold and silver

At the same time, silver has its own reasons for growth. It is often referred to as "gold for the poor" because the retail price of bullion is cheaper than that of bullion and more accessible to physical buyers. In a situation where gold is becoming more expensive, but there is no way to invest in it, the demand for more affordable and less liquid silver is growing.

The silver rally was also influenced by its inclusion in the US Geological Survey's list of critically important materials. There have long been concerns among investors that the Trump administration will impose tariffs on the entire list, prompting intensive purchases and inventory building before a final decision is made. The threat of tariffs has already led to record prices for copper and tin, and now silver has repeated their fate, although in January the White House nevertheless signaled that it was ready to abandon tariffs on metals.

High industrial demand is also pushing up the value of silver. However, this circumstance may play a cruel joke with investments in metal in the future. If expensive silver begins to affect the profits of manufacturing companies in the near future, this will stimulate the search for a replacement for silver components, which in turn will bring down the demand for the metal.

What does this mean for a private portfolio

Investors can consider silver as an investment object, but it would be wrong to expect it to grow as confidently and reliably as gold. Silver is already reaching the maximum possible growth rate, and if it continues, it will be inferior to gold. As an investment asset, it is still not as relevant due to the high demand in the industry.

Currently, the share of silver in the investment portfolio, along with other precious metals, should not be increased by more than 20-25%. It also needs to be hedged in case the growth stops or prices fall altogether, incurring additional costs for this. Cautious investors should keep in mind that there has not yet been a correction in silver, the probability of which is getting higher every day, but the global shortage of the metal is delaying it for now.

The theses contained in the text are not an investment recommendation, but the opinion of the editors.

During the preparation of the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• Candidate of Economic Sciences, independent economist Andrey Barkhota;
• financial consultant Alexey Rodin.