The 2025 precious metals market has staged an unexpected turnaround—silver, known as "the poor man's gold," has surged into a frenzy.

International silver prices have already broken through $79/oz, with an annual increase of nearly 150%, leaving gold's 71% gain far behind; domestic Shanghai silver futures main contract also performed strongly, reaching 19,204 yuan per kilogram, setting a new historical high. The single-day increase once exceeded 8%, with a total rise of over 130% this year. This is no ordinary rally; it’s an epic-level market movement.

Why is it so crazy? Essentially, it’s a structural supply-demand imbalance. A single photovoltaic industry consumes 55% of industrial silver, and combined with explosive demand from AI servers, new energy vehicles, and other emerging sectors, the demand curve for silver is almost vertical. On the supply side? Mine silver only grows by 2%-3% annually, and the global market has been out of stock for five consecutive years. Inventory depletion is even faster—the deliverable inventory of the London Bullion Market Association has fallen to a ten-year low, and domestic futures inventories are approaching warning levels, directly triggering a short squeeze.

The macro environment is also fueling the surge. Expectations of Fed rate cuts, geopolitical risk aversion demand, and central bank gold purchases all stack together, providing strong support for silver prices. What’s more, silver has the unique advantage of being both a financial asset and an industrial commodity, with price elasticity far greater than gold, naturally attracting capital.

The ripple effects of silver price soaring have spread across the entire industry chain. Upstream silver mining companies are seeing significant profit increases, earning big; downstream silver jewelry prices have doubled, making last year’s prices look like a joke; the photovoltaic industry is suffering from huge cost pressures, with silver paste now the most expensive raw material in modules, forcing companies either to raise prices or push forward with less silver technology—both challenging. Under this hot trend, risks are also brewing, and whether the market can sustain this rally remains uncertain.