Silver Hits New Record High as ETF Flows Turn Sharply Positive
Silver has doubled this year and just hit a new record high, fueled by a sharp reversal in ETF flows after four years of steady selling.
The price of silver rocketed to a fresh record high just below $59/oz on Wednesday, pushing its year-to-date gain to 102%. Investors in the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), the largest silver ETF with $29.3 billion in assets, have ridden a powerful rally across the precious-metals complex led by gold.
Gold itself has set multiple records this year. It was recently trading near $4,200/oz, up roughly 60% year-to-date. But while gold has spent years in record-high territory, silver only crossed into all-time-high levels in October, its first break above the 1980 peak since briefly challenging $50 in 2011.
After years of lagging gold, some investors are now finding relative value in silver. SLV has taken in $2.3 billion so far this year, while the abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF (SIVR) has added $900 million, bringing its assets to $4.1 billion.
Silver’s outperformance is also evident in the gold/silver ratio, which recently fell to around 72 from a high of 105 in April. That’s the lowest level since 2021.
ETF demand has played a major role in silver’s surge in 2025. But the structure of the silver market is different from gold’s, where investment demand typically makes up a large share of total usage.
Silver remains primarily an industrial metal. According to the Silver Institute, industrial uses and photography accounted for 61% of silver demand in 2024, jewelry and silverware made up 23%, and physical investment represented 16%. Silver ETFs were net sellers equal to 13% of global demand last year and have been net sellers every year since 2021.
That four-year stretch of persistent ETF outflows has reversed sharply this year and has been one of the key drivers behind silver’s breakout.
