Global ETP holdings · year end
2025 (est.)
~1130 Moz
Peak (2021)
~1132 Moz
More than a full year of mine supply sits inside ETPs. It counts as demand on the way in — and becomes supply the moment holders hit sell.
2026 Global Silver Deficit · Live Tracker
0
troy ouncessupply shortfall vs. demand
The silver market is running its 5th consecutive annual reported supply deficit. Since 2021, cumulative shortfalls total ~787 Moz, met by drawing on above-ground stocks while mine supply has stayed roughly flat and industrial demand has risen. A deficit reflects the flow balance, not a forecast of price.
Supply
1041 Moz
Demand
1087 Moz
Balance
-46 Moz
Supply vs. Demand · Moz
SupplyDemandfaded + dashed = forecast
What the data says right now
Section 01 · Real-Time
Live Interactive Chart
Institutional-grade candles and technical studies for spot Silver (XAG) — streamed natively via TradingView, no API backend required. Switch to COMEX:SI1! or any pair right in the chart.
Silver · 1Y · Custom Feed
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Relative Value
Gold / Silver Ratio
Ounces of silver that buy one ounce of gold — a common gauge of the two metals' relative pricing. It has averaged roughly 60 over the modern floating era and has historically ranged from the low-30s to above 120. Toggle between the live TradingView embed and our own computed feed (GC=F ÷ SI=F).
GC=F ÷ SI=F · 1Y · Computed Feed
—oz silver / oz gold
Computing ratio…
Section 01a · The Long View
Sixty-Five Years of Silver
Monthly prices back to 1960 — through the Hunt brothers' 1980 corner, the two-decade bear market, the 2011 run at $50 and the current deficit era. Toggle to today's dollars to see what those old peaks would actually mean now.
Section 01b · Macro Context
Cross-Asset Drivers
Silver doesn't trade in a vacuum. The dollar, real yields, gold and copper are its biggest macro cross-currents — here's where each sits over the past year and whether it's currently a tailwind or headwind for silver.
Section 01c · Positioning
Who Holds the Silver Bet
Every Friday the CFTC reports who is long and short COMEX silver futures. Managed money (hedge funds) chases trends; commercials (miners, merchants, swap dealers) hedge against them. When the speculative side reaches an extreme, the market is often stretched — this is the classic weekly sentiment read.
Section 01d · Futures Curve
Contango or Backwardation?
Silver trades for many delivery months at once. The shape of that curve is a message: an upward slope just prices storage and interest, while an inverted curve means someone wants metal now badly enough to pay up for it.
Section 01e · Watchlist
Price & Ratio Alerts
Set thresholds on the silver price or the gold/silver ratio. Rules are stored in your browser and checked against the live public feed every minute — no account, no backend. Enable notifications to get pinged even when this tab is in the background.
Silver—G/S ratio—COT pct—Curve—
Active rules
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Section 02 · Physical Float
The Vault Drain
COMEX & LBMA warehouse stocks since 2020. The deliverable 'Registered' category has declined notably from its 2021 highs, though it has stabilized recently and Eligible inventory remains substantial — context that cuts both ways.
Deliverability · Registered days of cover~300 Moz/yr delivery basis
COMEX Registered now
39.5 Moz
from 152 Moz in '20
Registered change vs '20
-74%
deliverable category, peak-to-now
LBMA London now
781 Moz
from 1080 Moz peak
Days of cover now
48 days
Registered float at typical delivery
Section 02b · Drawdown
Above-Ground Drawdown
Persistent deficits don't vanish — they're met by drawing down identifiable above-ground bullion. This traces that buffer from an illustrative end-2019 baseline through the deficit era. Forecast years follow the published estimates.
Stock now (2026 est.)
1,990 Moz
from 2,700 Moz baseline
Drawn down since '19
-26%
~710 Moz consumed
Consecutive deficits
5 yrs
~787 Moz cumulative
Section 02c · Investment Demand
Paper Silver, Pocket Silver
Investment demand wears two faces. Exchange-traded funds hold a vaulted pile that can grow or shrink at the speed of a stock trade; coin buyers accumulate slowly and rarely sell. Watching both tells you whether investors — fast money and faithful stackers alike — are absorbing metal or releasing it.
US Mint Silver Eagle bullion sales · yearly
2025 (est.)
~7.9 Moz
Peak (2020)
~30.1 Moz
The most-watched retail demand gauge in the US. Coin buyers are price-sensitive in the short run — sales boom on dips and panics, fade when premiums or prices feel rich.
Approximate year-end figures curated from public reporting; recent years are estimates (drawn faded). Live feeds for both series are access-restricted — see docs/data-roadmap.md for the licensing notes.
Section 03 · Drivers
Macro Movers
The forces shaping silver's supply/demand balance — strong electrification-led demand growth on one side, and the factors that could offset it (recycling, thrifting, price elasticity) on the other.
Card A · Industrial Demand
Solar vs. AI
681Moz industrial
Solar (PV)232 Moz
AI & Electronics248 Moz
Other Industrial200.5 Moz
Card B · Secondary Supply
Scrap & Recycling
2026 (est.)
207 Moz
Since 2020
+25%
Higher prices are lifting scrap supply. Recycling is currently ~19.1% of total supply and rising — a partial, growing offset to the balance rather than a full one.
Card C · Both Sides
Structural Picture
Silver is now an industrial metal first, with industrial uses consuming 58.5% of demand. Much of that is relatively price-inelastic in the short run — a solar panel or server needs the silver regardless of spot.
- +19.9%Solar silver demand, YoY
- 837 MozMine supply — roughly flat for a decade
- 5 yrsConsecutive reported deficits
Counterweights
Deficits are drawn from sizable existing stockpiles, not zero. Higher prices tend to lift recycling, encourage thrifting (less silver per cell/contact), and can curb price-sensitive demand — all of which can narrow the gap over time.
Card D · End Uses
Where the Silver Goes
Industrial fabrication dwarfs every other end use — a structural shift from silver's jewelry-and-coinage past. Investment and jewelry demand flex with price; the industrial base largely doesn't.
- Industrial680.5 Moz58.5%
- Jewelry211.3 Moz18.2%
- Physical Investment190.9 Moz16.4%
- Silverware55.2 Moz4.7%
- Other / ETP flow26.2 Moz2.3%
Total demand, 20241164.1 Moz
Card E · Growth Engines
Industrial Drivers Since 2020
Solar demand has more than doubled since 2020 (101 → 248 Moz) while AI-linked electronics keep compounding — the two engines behind the deficit era.
Section 03b · What-If
Scenario Sandbox
Pull the levers on silver's biggest swing factors and watch the projected balance respond. Anchored on the latest-year figures — this is your assumptions made explicit, not a forecast.
Solar demanddemand0%
PV buildout pace
Investment demanddemand0%
bars, coins & ETPs
Mine supplysupply0%
primary + by-product
Recyclingsupply0%
scrap response to price
Projected 2025 balance
-118 Moz
deficit · base -118 Moz
Supply1,030 Moz
Demand1,148 Moz
Illustrative model: sliders apply % deltas to the latest-year solar, investment, mine and recycling components. Not investment advice.
Section 03c · Silver Equities
The Miners: Leverage on the Metal
A silver miner's costs are mostly fixed, so a 20% move in silver can double or halve its profits — miners are the market's built-in leverage on the metal. When they outrun silver itself, risk appetite is strong; when they lag a rising price, equity investors don't yet believe the move.
Section 04 · Supply Geography
Where Silver Comes From
Mine supply is concentrated in a handful of countries — and most of it isn't even mined for silver. Because the metal arrives mainly as a byproduct of lead-zinc, copper and gold operations, higher silver prices can't quickly summon more supply: miners won't dig more copper to get more silver.
Top producers · 2025 est.
- 124.2%Mexico203 Moz
- 213.8%Peru116 Moz
- 313.1%China109 Moz
- 45.8%Bolivia48 Moz
- 55.4%Chile45 Moz
- 65.0%Poland42 Moz
- 74.6%Russia39 Moz
- 84.2%United States35 Moz
- 93.8%Australia32 Moz
- 103.1%Argentina26 Moz
836 Moz
World mine production, 2025 est.
51%
From just three countries (Mexico, Peru, China)
~23 yrs
Global reserves at the current mining pace
Byproduct
Most silver rides along with lead-zinc, copper & gold — supply barely responds to silver's own price
Section 04b · Trade Geography
Global Silver Trade Flows
Who's selling and who's buying. Mine-rich exporters in the Americas feed Asian and European fabrication demand — but the metal and its economic ownership don't always travel together. Toggle between where bullion physically moves and where the financial claim on it actually sits. Figures are the latest full-year net flows from public reporting; the data year is shown on the map.
Data year2024
Tip: click a country to isolate its corridors; click again or the ocean to clear.
Top net exporter
Mexico
+185 Moz net outflow
Top net importer
India
-205 Moz net inflow
Largest corridor
MEX → USA
95 Moz · bullion
Section 05 · Newswire
Latest Silver Headlines
A live pulse of silver-market news pulled from public news search — no account required. Headlines link out to their original publishers.
Section 06 · Speak Silver
Glossary
The jargon on this page, translated. Every chart above uses at least one of these.
- Troy ounce (ozt)
- The unit precious metals trade in — 31.103 grams, slightly heavier than a kitchen ounce. All prices here are USD per troy ounce; Moz = million troy ounces.
- Spot price
- The price for silver delivered now, set by the global wholesale market. Dealers price physical coins and bars at spot plus a premium.
- Premium
- What you pay above spot for physical metal — minting, distribution and dealer margin. Premiums explode when retail demand outruns coin supply, even if spot barely moves.
- Gold/silver ratio
- How many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys. High ratio = silver cheap relative to gold by historical standards; the modern era has averaged around 60.
- Futures contract
- An exchange-traded agreement to deliver 5,000 oz of silver in a set month. Most contracts are closed before delivery; the few that stand for delivery draw on COMEX registered stock.
- Contango
- Deferred futures cost more than nearby ones — the normal state, reflecting storage, insurance and interest ('carry').