Silver Prices Spiked 215% Over the Past Year. Is It Too Late to Invest?

As gold continues to set records, the precious metal's gains have been outperformed by one of its counterparts: silver. Silver prices have continued to climb this year as macroeconomic factors — including scarcity, geopolitical unrest and ongoing devaluation of the U.S. dollar — have reignited interest in safe-haven assets.

Since the second half of 2025, silver has enjoyed a bull run that has resulted in a 215% year-over-year gain, including a 34% gain so far this year.

And though some investors might be afraid that they've missed out on the precious metal's rally, some experts say there is still significant potential upside for silver in 2026.

What will silver prices do in 2026?

Buying any asset near recent highs runs contrary to the core investing concept of buy low, sell high. Still, there is no shortage of analysts who are convinced that silver's bull cycle is in its infancy, suggesting that those who missed its big gains so far could still benefit from investing now.

Despite the run-up in price over the past year, some experts see the precious metal reaching as high as $220 per troy ounce by the end of 2026. That price target implies 130% potential upside from today's prices. (The troy ounce is the standard unit of measurement for precious metals, equal to 1.09 ounces.)

Goldman Sachs' 2026 outlook is tempered in the $85 to $100 range. But Bank of America commodity strategist Michael Widmer said he expects inevitable and sizable price reversals for this year, estimating "that a fundamentally justified silver price" is closer to $60 per troy ounce. Widmer told Investing.com that "the recent exponential rally has been even stronger than we had anticipated," adding that the metal's dramatic price appreciation is likely to be followed by corrections.

That sentiment is echoed by Brian Spinelli, co-chief investment officer at Halbert Hargrove, who turns to historical precedent to caution prospective investors.

"We've had three instances over the last 45 years with silver behaving the way it has over the last four months of 2025," he says. "And each of those instances ended in a disaster for people who chased it."

Spinelli likens silver's recent parabolic moves to those of a meme coin, with prices that rapidly increased in a relatively short period of time, resulting in a steep and unsustainable upward curve on its price chart. He says investors who might be chasing last year's gains shouldn't expect that they will repeat in 2026. That's an unlikely scenario given silver's performance since July.

Even the most optimistic analysts' price targets suggest more conservative gains in the year ahead.

That sudden and significant run-up in price has left silver just 4.33% away from a hitting $100 per troy ounce, as investors continue to pile into the precious metal as they look to hedge against elevated volatility and ongoing market uncertainty.

These factors are helping silver prices rally

Silver is currently experiencing a massive supply deficit, with 2025 marking the fifth consecutive year the precious metal has seen a shortfall. In December, the cumulative deficit reached 1.2 million troy ounces as mining output — which has seen falling ore grades alongside increased production costs — struggles to keep up with demand.

That shortage has contributed to increased institutional buying. In the second half of 2025, JPMorgan Chase began unwinding its short position in silver, which was estimated at 200 million troy ounces. Since then, the investment bank has reversed course and acquired approximately 750 million troy ounces of silver, making it the world's largest private holder.

At the same time, the U.S. Mint is facing a silver coin shortage, which is intensifying supply pressure, while China has reclassified silver from an ordinary commodity to a strategic material. As a result, China is able to place export controls on the precious metal in a similar manner to regulated rare earth elements. Similarly, the U.S. Geological Survey added silver to its list of critical minerals in November.

Silver's global deficit is also being accelerated by its industrial applications, which account for an estimated 59% of its demand. The metal is used in everything from solar panel's photovoltaic cells and AI-critical semiconductors to aerospace thermal management and EV charging infrastructure.

Demand for its industrial applications is forecast to continue increasing. Industry consultancy firm Grand View Research sees those factors contributing to the global silver market enjoying a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 15.9% through 2030.

But Spinelli points out that industrial demand didn't show up overnight, leading him to question silver's ability to continue on this path.

"I don't mind [predictions that show] prices going up over the long term," he says. "But if the S&P 500 did this in one quarter, everybody would be whining about how overvalued the market is."

How investors are responding

Following another record-setting year for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), silver's rally has resulted in record inflows for funds backed by the physical metal. Much of that has been driven by retail investors piling into silver ETFs at unprecedented rates.

Last week, Reuters reported that the iShares Silver Trust recorded $69.2 million in retail inflows on Jan. 15 — the largest single-day influx since 2021 — while individual investors poured $921.8 million into silver ETFs over a 30-day period ending in mid-January.

For those looking to gain exposure at this point, Spinelli recommends sizing positions accordingly.

"There might be another 30% to 40% upside," he says. "But [silver] has had a history of doing this and then falling pretty quickly... Something that moves up this fast can go down just as fast."

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