Key Highlights

  • Silver has traded near the USD 65 level during parts of 2026, a historically elevated price for the metal, even as it has also seen a sharp pullback of nearly 50 percent from its peak reported earlier in the year.
  • The iShares Silver Trust , the largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, has experienced significant single-session swings tied to shifting expectations around Federal Reserve Interest Rate policy.
  • Rising Treasury yields and hawkish rate-hike expectations have been cited as key drivers behind sharp pullbacks in silver, since, like gold, it pays no yield and becomes less attractive when bonds offer a compelling return.
  • Silver's dual role as both a precious metal and an industrial input tied to electronics and solar Manufacturing adds an additional layer of Volatility compared with gold, since it is also sensitive to industrial Demand expectations.

How Silver Got to USD 65

Silver's climb toward the USD 65 level during 2026 reflected a combination of strong industrial demand tied to electronics and solar panel manufacturing, safe-haven buying alongside gold amid broader macroeconomic uncertainty, and speculative investor interest chasing the metal's outsized moves relative to gold. That said, silver has also proven considerably more volatile than gold over the same period, with reports describing pullbacks of nearly 50 percent from earlier peak levels during particularly sharp selloffs, underscoring how quickly sentiment toward the metal can shift in either direction.

Why the iShares Silver Trust Saw Sharp Overnight Moves

The iShares Silver Trust , the largest and most widely traded silver-backed exchange-traded fund, is designed to track the price of physical silver closely, meaning sharp moves in the underlying metal show up directly in the fund's share price. Reports have tied recent sharp single-session declines in silver, and by extension in SLV, to shifting expectations around Federal Reserve interest rate policy, with rising Treasury yields making non-yielding Assets like silver comparatively less attractive and prompting rapid position unwinding among leveraged or short-term traders.

Why Silver Moves More Than Gold

Silver's dual identity as both a monetary, safe-haven-adjacent metal and a genuine industrial Commodity used heavily in electronics, solar panels and other manufacturing applications means its price responds to a wider and sometimes contradictory set of forces than gold, which trades almost entirely as a monetary and safe-haven asset. This dual sensitivity, combined with silver's smaller overall market size relative to gold, tends to produce sharper percentage moves in both directions, which is part of why traders and investors in silver and in vehicles like the iShares Silver Trust should generally expect more volatility than they would from gold over the same period.

Where Things Stand

Silver's move to around USD 65 reflects genuine industrial and safe-haven demand, but the iShares Silver Trust's sharp overnight declines show how sensitive the metal remains to shifting Treasury Yield expectations, and investors should expect silver to keep moving more sharply than gold in both directions given its dual monetary and industrial role.