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.
Silver could explode to $250 and even $500, according to billionaire investor and precious metals icon Eric Sprott. The former head of Sprott Inc. expects rising demand and bullish performance to break the $33 resistance, propelling silver into uncharted territory. The gold-to-silver ratio, which has hovered near historic highs, provides a further springboard to launch silver to fresh records.
Sprott’s Silver Bet
Sprott is plain about his optimistic outlook for the shiny metal. “I think silver is going to skyrocket.”
The titan of the precious metals industry is famed for encouraging investors to scoop up gold right before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and allocating upwards of 90% of his portfolio to gold and silver.
“The ultimate target is $250 on silver,” he explained during an interview with Kitco. Regarding another expert’s forecast of $500, Sprott agreed it was “entirely possible.”
These ambitious price targets represent 784% and 1,669% gains from 2024 averages, respectively.
These moves might seem unlikely at first, but silver is still well below its all-time highs. While silver’s nominal record is around $50, its inflation-adjusted peak is closer to $140.
Recently, $33 has been the strongest resistance level, keeping prices relatively subdued even by historical standards.
Sprott isn’t the least bit deterred by this temporary ceiling, however, saying, “There’s just no doubt in my mind—we will breach the resistance at $33 and we will just ultimately fly.”
Who’s pulling the strings?
This resistance might appear as a technical barrier on a chart, but it has its origins in the real world. Sprott explains the decades-long price manipulation that has burdened the silver market and hurt investors.
In simple terms, price manipulation happens when major financial institutions short-sell silver to keep prices artificially low and profit from the resulting volatility.
In 2023 alone, two former JP Morgan precious metals traders were convicted of “deceptive trading sequences for…silver…futures contracts.” While regulators have started cracking down on the practice, Sprott doesn’t expect much to change in the near term.
As he puts it, silver has “been manipulated for the last 50 years. And those guys are all still short—they can’t get off their shorts.”
A Bullish Gold-to-Silver Ratio
According to Sprott, the historically high gold-to-silver ratio—a metric that measures how many ounces of silver are needed to buy one ounce of gold—is yet another sign of widespread market manipulation. In recent months, the ratio has hovered near highs of 90:1 and even surpassed 100:1.
That’s a far cry from the actual production ratio of gold-to-silver, which stands at 7:1. The current imbalance, Sprott argues, exists in part “because it’s manipulated.” Once that market manipulation ends or stops distorting prices, he believes the ratio could snap back to “at least 15:1 or 12:1, which it was as currency.”
Trade Wars and Tailwinds
One of the biggest uncertainties clouding silver’s future performance is the global trade war, sparked by Trump’s blanket tariffs. Although these import taxes haven’t hit precious metals, the mere threat was enough to fuel a massive shift in physical bullion from London to New York, which some experts still think will cause explosive price action.
Sprott’s perspective is slightly more muted yet still bullish on the shiny metal. If the worldwide tariffs spark a recession (a probability J.P. Morgan places at 60%), precious metals are likely to benefit as safe-haven demand spikes. As Sprott describes, “A bear market is the best thing that could ever happen to gold and silver.”