Silver Soars to New Highs as Global Supply Strains Intensify

Weekly Price Overview – 3 December 2025

Silver dominated this week, posting new all-time highs in both USD and NZD. Gold also posted solid gains in USD terms, while NZD gold held firm. The NZ dollar strengthened slightly, but remains in a long-term downtrend — a continued tailwind for local metal prices.

🟡 NZD gold dipped $12.24 (-0.17%) to $7,340.41. It’s still trading between short-term resistance and support lines, with the 50-day MA near $7,050 providing a key floor. USD gold rose $74.59 (+1.80%) to $4,209.73, holding support and nearing breakout above recent highs.

⚪ NZD silver surged $10.46 (+11.43%) to $101.96 — closing above $100 for the first time and continuing higher each day this week. USD silver soared $7.01 (+13.63%) to $58.47 — a new all-time high. The next key levels to watch are $60 and $70. Buy any dips.

💱 NZD/USD rose 111 basis points (+1.97%) to 0.5735. The Kiwi climbed above the 50-day MA but remains in a clear long-term downtrend. This continues to support NZD-denominated precious metals prices.

📈 Takeaway: Silver is surging with its strongest weekly move in years. Gold remains strong, but silver is showing explosive momentum. While short-term pullbacks are possible, averaging in on dips remains the go-to strategy — especially in silver.

Gold or Silver in 2025: Which One’s Right for You?

In this week’s featured guide, we break down the key differences between gold and silver, and show how your decision should depend on your goals, budget, and appetite for risk.

Whether you’re new to metals or looking to rebalance your holdings, this practical breakdown will help you decide which metal deserves your dollars in 2025.

Read the full guide

Silver Smashes All-Time Highs — But That’s Only Half the Story

As we noted in this week’s price overview, silver has exploded to new all-time highs in both USD and NZD — and it hasn’t stopped climbing since.

But behind it lay one of the most bizarre recent market events…

Derivatives Markets Go Dark — Right Before Silver Takes Off

Late on Thanksgiving night (US time), around 10 PM EST, 90% of global derivatives trading suddenly stopped. That included:

• Gold and silver futures
  
• Energy contracts
  
• Currencies and even digital assets
  

The CME Group blamed a “cooling system failure” at its Illinois data centre.

But traders aren’t buying it.

From anonymous techs to seasoned bullion analysts, many suspect the outage was a tactical pause — buying time as thin markets and big silver orders threatened to send prices into the stratosphere.

Just as mysteriously, trading resumed precisely when banks tapped $24.4 billion in Fed repo liquidity.

Silver then surged 5% in a day, closing at $56.30/oz, with the gold:silver ratio tightening to 75 — a big move.

Source. 

Was There a Massive Physical Silver Grab Behind the Curtain?

Social media lit up with unconfirmed reports that someone — possibly an authorised participant in China — stood for delivery of 400 million ounces of physical silver across COMEX and/or LBMA.

The rumour? Rather than default, “the banksters pulled the plug.”

Others speculated that the outage prevented a runaway price move in a paper market dangerously thin on real metal.

China’s Silver Vaults Are Draining Fast

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Chinese silver stockpiles have collapsed to their lowest in a decade — with exports to London soaring in October.

Over 660 tonnes of silver were shipped out in just one month — a record.

With Chinese inventories at decade lows, industrial demand rising, and exports continuing, the market may not have a reliable backstop in the near term.

While Goldbroker reports:

“India is known to be significantly behind on its annual orders and is expected to request an additional 2,000 tons before the end of the year.

South Korea has negotiated a $76 billion order of precious metals, gold and silver, directly with Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). This could explain the drop of over 1,000 tons of silver in Shanghai’s silver stocks in three months, representing two-fifths of the total.”

COMEX: A “Run on the Vaults” Has Begun

In just the first few days of December, over 44 million ounces of silver have been physically delivered off COMEX.

That’s not normal – and veteran watchers are calling it a “run on the vaults.”

Even JPMorgan – long suspected of manipulating the market — is taking physical delivery while also issuing metal, suggesting they’re acting for multiple large players.

And crucially: Open interest isn’t collapsing.
That means traders aren’t closing positions – they’re standing for delivery.

As one analyst wrote:

“Paper always works… until too many people ask for the product.”

Source: Honza Černý on X

Vince Lanci: “The Real Silver Squeeze Hasn’t Even Started”

In a standout video this week, metals veteran Vince Lanci argued that we’re only seeing the early innings of silver’s supply/demand squeeze — and what comes next could be a full-scale repricing of physical silver.

Here are some key takeaways from Vince:

• Physical silver is vanishing — and industrial demand is accelerating.
  
• Shorts are not covering, they’re just rolling contracts, delaying delivery with over-the-counter agreements.
  
• COMEX is becoming increasingly “financialized” — kicking the can down the road as real metal disappears.
  
• Silver can’t be leased like gold, which adds more stress to the system.
  
• At some point, if a short can’t deliver, the system may break via a default or counterparty failure.
  
• Lease rates aren’t rising — not because stress is low, but because there’s no silver to lease.
  
• He sees signs that the US is preparing for a “monetary revolution”, where gold, silver, and even crypto are integrated into mainstream investment vehicles like 401(k)s and ETFs — not to encourage freedom, but to contain and tax the demand.
  

“We’re just getting started… and once the physical market sets the price, silver won’t just be undervalued — it’ll be unobtainable.”

What It All Means

• The system is under strain.
  
• Price discovery in silver is increasingly disconnected from actual metal availability.
  
• A physical market-led price breakout is becoming more likely, as traditional market mechanisms struggle to keep control.
  

If you’ve ever wondered what a real silver squeeze looks like — this may be how it begins.

Chart of the Week: What If Silver Repeats Its Historic Moves?

Jeff Clark from The Gold Advisor shared this chart showing where silver could head if it repeats previous bull market spikes going back to 1975.

“The next stop for silver is $60. 📈
But history shows the metal can move fast once momentum builds — are you positioned for the next leg up?”

Source: Jeff Clark 

Some historical comparisons suggest targets of $90, $120 — even over $400/oz if the 1980-style move repeats.

Silver has a long history of sharp, fast rallies. With the current setup — tight supply, rising demand, and financial stress in futures — we might just be at the start of one now.

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