Silver climbed to a new all-time high above $95 per ounce, extending a powerful rally that has pushed the metal up roughly 31% year-to-date. With momentum building, silver is now approaching the $100 mark, while some analysts are projecting far more aggressive upside into 2026.
The surge comes as precious metals benefit from renewed safe-haven demand following fresh tariff tensions sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions against the European Union. Gold and silver both hit record levels earlier this week, and the rally has continued, with silver setting successive highs and even outperforming gold.
According to market data, silver has now become the second-largest asset by market capitalization after gold. Commentators have noted that while gold often dominates headlines, silver’s rapid rise is increasingly drawing attention across global markets.
Beyond geopolitics, several structural factors are supporting silver’s advance. These include expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts, which tend to favor non-yielding assets, tightening physical supply, and rising industrial demand from sectors such as solar energy, electric vehicles, electronics, and advanced infrastructure.
In the near term, analysts widely see $100 per ounce as achievable. Economist Peter Schiff suggested silver could reach that level imminently, citing investor caution that may give way to an even stronger metals rally.
Longer-term forecasts are even more bullish. Some analysts argue that silver faces a structural imbalance between paper trading and physical supply. Estimates suggest banks hold billions of dollars in short positions, while industrial use already absorbs around 60% of annual global silver production. Covering those shorts, they argue, would require years of mined supply that is largely unavailable.
Bank of America’s head of metals research, Michael Widmer, has echoed the bullish outlook, stating that silver could trade anywhere between $135 and $309 per ounce in 2026.
Overall, silver’s rally reflects a combination of macroeconomic uncertainty, supply constraints, and accelerating industrial demand. While $100 is now firmly in sight, the case for much higher prices hinges on whether these underlying imbalances persist.