As silver prices reach levels not seen in almost 14 years, investors are not only stocking up on bars, but they’re also loading up on silver ETFs at a record pace. And the game is no longer about price momentum. Structural changes in demand, constricting physical supply, and gold’s rapidly unaffordable glamour are pointing capital toward ETFs linked to silver, the “poor man’s gold” that’s now enjoying a rich run.
Silver ETFs added more than 2,570 tons of the metal since February, Bloomberg data shows, and they are playing a central role in the most recent supply squeeze. The effect has been so sharp that it’s now tightening the physical silver market in London, the main vaulting center for ETF holdings, and driving borrowing rates for the metal to more than 6%, an astonishing spike from their typical near-zero level.
