Silver Surges 900% On Retail Investment Wave

Silver rose by as much as 11.2% to $30.03 an ounce during weekend trading, marking its highest point since February 2013, as a wave of small-time traders turned their attention to commodities.

Silver is only one of the assets that has seen a rise recently, following what reports now call “the GameStop frenzy”, where users in the Reddit community ‘r/WallStreetBets’ piled into GameStop and other struggling retail businesses that banks and hedge funds had taken out paper bets against.

The online community first became aware of the commodity on Thursday, when posts began circulating pleading with investors to buy silver mining stocks and ETFs backed by physical silver bars. Since then, demand for physical silver has more than doubled.

Silver has great value both as a safe-haven asset and an industrial metal, and its prices have risen by almost 19% since Thursday.

iShares Silver Trust Etf, the biggest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, had their silver holdings spike by a record 37 million shares between Thursday and Friday, with each share representing an ounce of silver. During the week, total silver holdings by all major ETFs soared to a record 912 million ounces.

Analysts predict that silver’s favorable fortunes will persist as positive and enabling policies in the US spur it on.