Eric Sepanek
SBC Founder
Eric Sepanek is the founder of Scottsdale Bullion & Coin, established in 2011. With extensive experience in the precious metals industry, he is dedicated to educating Americans on the wealth preservation power of gold and silver.
2025 proved that traditional forecasting models struggled to keep pace with the speed and scale of the precious metals rally. What began the year with already bullish assumptions quickly turned into a cycle of upward revisions, as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium pushed well beyond even aggressive expectations.
In this week’s The Gold Spot, Scottsdale Bullion & Coin Founder Eric Sepanek looks back at the market’s price forecasts for precious metals, how each metal outpaced these predictions, and what this could mean for 2026 expectations.
Precious Metals Outperform Expectations in 2025
Taken together, Scottsdale Bullion & Coin’s aggregated price outlooks for the four major precious metals were exceeded by ~54% on average, a meaningful gap that underscores just how conservative early-year assumptions ultimately proved to be. That internal result closely aligns with broader market data. According to Bloomberg, the precious metals complex as a whole rose roughly 64% in 2025, marking one of the strongest annual performances for the asset class in decades.
Rather than stemming from a single catalyst, the precious metals rally was driven by a convergence of macroeconomic, geopolitical, and market-specific forces. While each precious metal was supported by its own set of dynamics, common themes emerged across the complex: rising demand, constrained supply, shifting investor behavior, and growing institutional participation in precious metals as a strategic asset class.
Gold
| Gold Spot Price Performance | Price |
|---|---|
| 2025 Avg. Price Predicted: | $3,003/oz |
| 2025 Opening Price: | $2,624.50/oz |
| 2025 Year-End Close: | $4,318.18/oz |
| Outperformed Expectations By: | 44% |
In 2025, gold prices confirmed that the rally’s strength was rooted in systemic changes with a structural backbone, rather than temporary flukes or short-term fluctuations. Predictions of the yellow metal’s performance were already bullish, but these optimistic expectations were crushed by over 44%. Year-to-date, the metal returned 65%.
Gold’s greater-than-expected strength was underpinned by robust central bank demand, deeper institutional integration, accelerating de-dollarization efforts worldwide, and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Together, these forces underscore the yellow metal’s rising role as a cornerstone of international economics and a stabilizing force within global markets.
Silver
| Silver Spot Price Performance | Price |
|---|---|
| 2025 Avg. Price Predicted: | $37.34/oz |
| 2025 Opening Price: | $28.92/oz |
| 2025 Year-End Close: | $71.59/oz |
| Outperformed Expectations By: | 92% |
Silver was the shiniest performer of 2025 by far, exceeding price expectations by 92% and delivering a staggering 148% return on the year. For years, silver prices had been artificially suppressed by market manipulation from the world’s largest investors. Despite foundational supply shortfalls and its dual-demand role as both an industrial and monetary metal, silver remained below the $50 per ounce threshold for decades.
2025 blew the lid off that ceiling, with silver prices spiking to a record intra-day high above $80 per ounce. The shiny metal is exploding off the end of a 50-year cup-and-handle formation and has firmly entered price discovery mode.
Platinum
| Platinum Spot Price Performance | Price |
|---|---|
| 2025 Avg. Price Predicted: | $1,333.82/oz |
| 2025 Opening Price: | $905.30/oz |
| 2025 Year-End Close: | $2,063.15/oz |
| Outperformed Expectations By: | 55% |
2025 marked a seismic shift for the platinum market, which had been stuck in a decades-long holding pattern. Since 2015, the metal had bounced between roughly $800/oz and $900/oz. Platinum prices broke through this stubborn price ceiling and pierced market expectations, returning around 128% on the year.
As investment flows shifted and investors reassessed platinum’s relative value, price action turned aggressive. Platinum’s quiet breakout was notable not just for its size but for its speed, catching many people off guard. The precious metal moved slightly higher in the first half of 2025, but made outsized gains in the latter half of the year.
Palladium
| Palladium Spot Price Performance | Price |
|---|---|
| 2025 Avg. Price Predicted: | $1,318.33/oz |
| 2025 Opening Price: | $911.96 |
| 2025 Year-End Close: | $1,621.45/oz |
| Outperformed Expectations By: | 23% |
Palladium’s gains were modest compared to other precious metals, yet the lesser-known metal still outshone the S&P 500, which yielded 16%. 2025 marked a turnaround for palladium prices, which had been on a multi-year downward trend followed by a years-long consolidation phase. Currently, the metal sits at relative highs last seen in 2022.
Palladium continued to face substitution trends and demand uncertainty, along with other structural headwinds. However, its impressive performance in the face of these obstacles serves as a reminder that even precious metals with considerable hurdles can leap over conservative assumptions in a broader bullish metals environment.
The Bigger Picture
Precious metals price predictions for 2025 were directionally accurate but magnitude-wise short. Every metal within the asset class exceeded already bullish expectations, reinforcing precious metals’ ability to store value across economic conditions while also delivering impressive growth amid heightened volatility.
“Looking back, we got a lot more bang for our buck when it came to metals predictions in 2025.”
Eric Sepanek
SBC Founder
With similar outperformance unfolding in 2024, investors are increasingly left to wonder whether the market is once again aiming too low for the year ahead. Broadly, experts expect gold and silver to build on their already remarkable gains as both precious metals continue the search for new highs.
With precious metals entering 2026 on a strong footing, attention is quickly shifting to what comes next. See our latest gold and silver price predictions for 2026 to understand the potential paths ahead and how you can put yourself in the best position to succeed.
2026 Precious Metals Forecasts & Predictions
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