Silver’s Wild Week Caught the Market Off Guard
- If it felt like your dollars barely kept up last year, you weren’t imagining it. In 2025 alone, Americans lost nearly -40% of their gold buying power and about -60% of their silver buying power—far more erosion than the headlines let on.
- Gold and silver did not suddenly become expensive, they simply exposed how much weaker paper currencies have become when measured against something real
- Silver in particular is wearing two hats right now, it is both money and a critical industrial metal, which means demand keeps growing while supply does not magically expand
- Governments are starting to treat silver like what it actually is, a strategic resource, with restrictions, critical mineral designations, and national stockpiling becoming more common
- The wild silver price swings you see on screens mostly reflect paper trading, not the physical reality, real metal inventories are shrinking even as demand rises
- Physical bullion ownership matters more in environments like this, paper promises work fine until everyone asks for delivery at the same time
- Industrial users are already signaling stress by offering premiums over spot prices just to secure future silver supply, that is not speculation, that is urgency
- Gold continues to act as the financial truth teller, reminding us that currency weakness is often slow, quiet, and ignored until it becomes impossible to miss
- This cycle feels different from past spikes because it is driven by structural shortages, geopolitical competition, and real-world demand, not just investor excitement
- The road ahead is likely to stay volatile, but volatility is not the same as risk, the bigger risk is assuming paper money will somehow regain strength without changing the forces weakening it
Last week in 2025, silver surged to nearly $84 an ounce before swinging wildly all week and closing above $72, a high volatility stretch that shook the market.
From a blistering Asian-market surge to a brutal midweek sell-off, here’s what really drove silver’s dramatic price action and why it matters now.
It doesn't make me dance: last year, in 2025 alone, US citizens lost nearly –40% in their gold bullion and –60% in their silver bullion buying power.
The spot silver price ripped to open this trading week in Asian hours, ticking nearly $84 oz to a new nominal price high, only to suffer a violent sell-off in a few up-and-down waves through the week.
Silver closed at $72.86 oz bid for the week.
The spot gold price mostly sold off on the week, ending at $4,332 oz bid.
The spot gold-to-silver ratio fell to 54 on silver's explosive strength last Sunday night, only to end this week at 59 oz of spot silver to afford one troy ounce of spot gold.
Here is a closer look at that crazy Sunday 12/28/2025 evening into New Year's Day trading for silver.
Hopefully, you're not out there levered long, playing in these insanely volatile paper markets.
Sticking with physical bullion for the long pull is the best way to handle this trade.
As well as sticking with the facts, the best you can.
This bullion bull will be rowdy, mainly to the real value upside.
Silver is Shocking the World
It doesn't make me dance, that last year in 2025 alone, US citizens lost nearly -40% in gold bullion buying power with their fiat US dollar incomes and savings.
You ever number of go down?
Well that's basically what's happening here for those who don't own gold bullion.
The timespan covers our full fiat currency era.
Friendly reminder that 26 alleged gold market analysts didn't see last year coming. Their gold price guesses were about $1200 an ounce low.
Fiat US dollar hodl'r losses on the silver side of last year's equation are even more mind numbing.
The mainstream financial know it alls will tell you the US dollar lost just over —10% last year.
The truth is, they lost -60% to silver bullion stores of value.
The 26 experts were about 1/2 way correct in their collective price guesstimates for 2025.
Turning further and deeper into the discredited London Bullion Market Association.
The City of London's silver piles continue to get run on.
Ah, a 1 negative 15 million ounce pull the day after Christmas.
No wonder London Silver lease rates keep climbing higher and higher.
More on the other two white precious metals in a minute, as you can their lease rates remain stubbornly high as well.
Onward stateside to the COMEX.
Oh, yea!
One thing to note, a key difference between this ongoing silver bullion bull market vs the last pip squeak 2011 speed bump. Open interest has actually been falling in COMEX silver futures contracts as the spot and futures prices have been zooming higher.
That signal the shorts are having to cut losses and that this bullion bull is more structural and physical 1,000 oz silver bar driven that a decade and a half ago.
Also the most important part of the alleged COMEX silver pile backing the mostly paper contract trading exchange, the Registered pull-able pile has dropped from having just over 200 million ounces to start September 2025, to now around 128 million oz. That's more than 1/3 of it getting yanked in the finale 1/3rd of last year's timeframe.
And then there is China's SGE & SHFE silver stockpiles, still tiny for the country that needs the most industrial silver tonnage in the world to manufacturer virtually and silver infused items you can name.
This is why many including myself believe China is clamping down on domestic supplies from fleeing offshore 2026 into 2027. They fully understand that silver is a critical precious metal in tight increasingly lacking supplies.
Turning now to palladium and specifically platinum.
Both also ramped in spot prices last year to the tune of 2nd and 3rd place in performance behind first place silver.
Those 26 experts missed platinum's 2025 move by about half.
Who could blame them?
Who could have guess that in last month December 2025 alone. The bottom vs top intra-month price tick for platinum around the world saw a range of $1500 oz, nearly double it's spot price to start the month.
Oh and I found out the platinum and palladium price quotes you see coming out of China, they do not infuse local VAT, traders if they pull either metal from the new Chinese exchange pay that local tax fee separate from ongoing price quotes.
And so while we all wonder how much tighter this industrial and investment silver market will get the world over. Reports this week, aside from the Samsung 1 kilo per EV battery hype rumors, are that you had Chinese manufacturing and trading firms ringing up silver miners offering to buy their silver with an $8 premium at the time.
Not just Chinese, Indian buyers also are reaching out with bids reportedly $10 oz over the market price at the time.
Yea, wow.
You can say that again Elon Musk.
When we get back after this short break we're going to go through Elon's two specific Silver related tweets from last week. I think you will find them both interesting and relevant to our show.
The spot silver price ripped to open this trading week in Asian hours, ticking nearly $84 oz its new nominal price high, only tel violent sell off in few up and down waves through the week.
Silver closed at $72.86 oz bid for the week.
The spot gold price mostly sold off on the week, ending at $4,332 oz bid.
The spot gold silver ratio cut down to 54 with silver's explosive strength last Sunday night, only to end this week at 59 oz of spot silver to afford one troy ounce of spot gold.
Here is a closer look at that crazy Sunday evening into New Year's day trading for silver.
Hopefully you're not out there levered long, playing in these insanely volatile paper markets.
Sticking with physical bullion for the long pull, is the best way to handle this trade.
As well as sticking with the facts, the best you can.
The day after Christmas, Elon Musk made silver headline news when he responded with concerns over the news that China is apparently looking after China first, when it comes to their industrial silver supplies and ongoing demand.
The other issue is China's EV car manufacturer BYD is eating Tesla's lunch in terms of global auto sales with much more competitive pricing points and growing emerging markets to sell to.
The next day on Twitter X my post here went viral. 4.7 million views, reminding people that silver is still store of value money, even if industrialists think they should have it all. Not gonna happen.
Couple days later after my post, degenerate gambling market maker Polymarket stole my copy, and Elon Musk responded, Wow!
The biggest problem was their social media account was again inaccurate, and 2 days late on the data.
I was accurate, I went to coin shop and bought these beauties amongst other bullion items.
See I know nominally silver looks expensive, in real value terms its still cheap, we're not even at historical fair value levels yet.
Call me when 25 ounces of silver bullion buys the nominal S&P 500.
Time for a callback on my dark humor, silver Billy Madison meme.
Three of the fiat currencies that had yet to nominally break out to new all time price highs are now gone and behind us.
See ya later Israeli New Shekels. Physical silver shekels, win again.
Albanian Lek, same story you were designed to lose real value to silver.
Remember how I constantly remind myself here that silver eventually follows gold.
Well in fiat Japanese yen, one of the most important fiat currency units in finance and the investment world, just saw its newest nominal price high in silver.
The first time since 1980.
Yep, originally the yen held 0.78 oz of silver melt value in a 90% silver coin introduced in 1870 as it began increasingly trading with the Western world.
Silver is just getting started in Japan.
Congratulations to Bulgarians for their introduction into the EU, out with the fiat lev, in with the fiat euro. Same, same and not very different, 20% VAT on silver bullion and more losses in your silver buying power to continue onwards.
One of our final laggard indicators on the final boss list remains. The fiat Swiss franc vs silver nominal price is still below its nominal price high way back in 1980 in then much stronger fiat Swiss francs.
This is yet another illustration that silver is only getting underway in the bull market mania to come.
Yes, silver's spot price has been rising so sharply of late. And yes, it will have to rise much further in the years coming to bring supply demand market balance and East vs West equilibriums back.
We got a long wild ride ahead. Buckle up Silver Squeeze'rs. This bullion bull will be rowdy, mostly to the real value upside.
Speaking of bullion, if you are like me still adding to your positions.
REFERENCE:
Yahoo Finance on Metals Wars & Silver 2026:
https://youtu.be/bJ0Jb0ZODHE?si=GbjiUvPUggBVX5rr&t=428
