Silver just broke $85/oz for the first time ever, up 19% in twelve days. It was $29 in January 2025. Now it's $85. That's a 180% gain in one year while the S&P barely moved.
This is panic buying disguised as diversification. When silver moves this fast, institutions are hedging against currency collapse, not chasing returns.
Here's what's driving it: Fed cutting rates with inflation still hot, Iran potentially closing the Strait of Hormuz, $700M smuggled out of Minneapolis, Trump threatening strikes everywhere, and gold at $4,500 pricing out regular investors.
Silver's the poor man's apocalypse hedge.
Industrial demand's real too - solar panels, electronics, medical devices all need silver. But that explains maybe 20% of this move.
The other 80% is "what if the dollar breaks?"
Compare this to 2008-2011: silver went from $10 to $50 when trust in the financial system collapsed.
We're seeing the same pattern, just faster. Markets are pricing in systemic risk that stock indexes are ignoring.
Gold-to-silver ratio sitting at 56:1. Historical average is 65:1.
That means silver's outperforming gold, which only happens when people think industry's about to boom or everything's about to burn.
Source: Trading Economics, JM Bullion
