The current surge in silver prices follows the same logic as gold: both are driven by a need to hedge against inflation and seek safe haven amid rising global government debt and currency devaluation. This fundamental situation, coupled with a large influx of short-term speculative capital, has led to the rapid price increase.
Many people have been comparing silver to Nvidia's market capitalization these past few days. If viewed this way, silver, also a millennia-old traditional currency, is truly undervalued.
The market capitalization of a single chip company > the entire stock of silver accumulated over thousands of years – is there anything more outrageous?
This isn't just about silver being expensive; it's about the extreme inflation of the entire financial asset system. AI stocks, stocks, and bonds have been inflated to unbelievable heights by printed money.
The figure of 4.35 trillion for the total market capitalization of silver is calculated by multiplying all historically mined silver (approximately 1.75 million tons) by the current price. However, over 50% of this has already become "industrial waste" buried underground (non-recyclable) or has become silver tableware and jewelry in people's homes (non-circulating).
The true market value of "investable silver": The total amount of silver bars and coins in global vaults is only about 3-4 billion ounces. At current prices, the total market value of investable silver is only $300-400 billion.
In other words, the market capitalization of Nvidia alone could buy 10-15 times the total global stockpile of circulating silver bars/coins. This is analogous to saying that a factory manufacturing AI chips is more than ten times more expensive than the total global stockpile of the raw materials necessary for chip manufacturing (silver is the most conductive metal on Earth). In the long run, this represents an extreme asset mismatch.
The logic of the financial market is clear: when the debt system begins to loosen, credit assets will be discounted, and monetary assets will be sought after.
