Evolution of the silver price (5 years)
Historical analysis and perspectives of the silver market.
Over 5 years (2020–2025), silver has been one of the most volatile and best-performing assets among precious metals — with a drawdown depth also among the most significant.
2020 — COVID Crash and Recovery: March 2020, silver falls to 11.64 USD/oz (the lowest since 2009). Then, massive monetary stimulus and PV industrial demand send the price exploding: +142% between March and August 2020, reaching 29.24 USD.
January 2021 — WallStreetBets: The r/WallStreetBets Reddit community launched a silver short squeeze. The SLV ETF saw record inflows. Silver rose from 25 to 30 USD in 48h before normalizing. Lesson: physical silver is harder to 'squeeze' than futures.
2022–2023 — Interest Rates and Strong Dollar: Rising Fed rates negatively impact all precious metals (opportunity cost of holding). Silver oscillates between 18 and 26 USD/oz. Photovoltaic (solar) demand partially compensates.
2024–2025 — New Cycle: Falling real rates, mining supply deficits and solar demand (solar now represents 15% of world silver demand) push silver towards 30–35 USD. The physical deficit is documented by the Silver Institute for the 4th consecutive year.