Silver Is Moving Like an Altcoin: What It Means for the Crypto Market

Key Insights:

• Silver’s record rally shows money rotating away from the crypto market.
• ETF outflows and liquidations have kept the crypto prices weak over the past few weeks.
• The silver/BTC ratio jumped 146%, showing traders prefer metals right now.

Silver reached a record price of about $58 per ounce, while the crypto prices are struggling. It is now up more than 100% in 2025. It’s worth noting that the Gold surge is also strong, but silver is rising even faster.

At the same time, the crypto market stays weak after a large fall in November. Plus, December didn’t start on a good note either.

This has made many traders ask why money is moving toward metals instead of crypto, even though both markets react to interest-rate cuts. The picture becomes clearer when we look at supply issues, rate-cut expectations, ETF flows, and the silver-to-Bitcoin chart.

Silver Moves Higher as Crypto Market Struggles

Silver is rising for many reasons this year.

The number of inventories in London and Shanghai has dropped to very low levels. This makes silver harder to find.

Solar-panel companies also need a lot of silver, so demand stays strong even when the economy is weak. These two points have pushed the price higher all year.

Traders also expect a rate cut soon. Recent data shows an 89% chance of a cut in December. Metals usually rise when interest rates fall because they do not pay interest, and lower rates make them easier to hold.

But the crypto market is not reacting the same way, and recorded a gloomy start in December.

Bitcoin is down about 30% from its October high. The crypto ETF products in the United States saw nearly $3.4 billion leave in November. And Silver is now performing better than the S&P 500.

A DeFi hack also hurt market mood, and traders lost more than $1 billion in leveraged positions during the sell-off. Together, these things kept the crypto market weak even though metals moved higher.

When we compare both markets, silver is behaving almost like an “altcoin” inside the metals world.

It is moving faster than gold and reacting strongly to supply pressure, while crypto prices is stuck in a slow phase because buyers are still waiting for better liquidity.

Key Chart Shows Clear Move Away From Crypto Prices

The silver-to-Bitcoin chart shows where the money is moving now. The ratio was around 0.00028 in January 2025.

It reached about 0.00069 in December 2025. This is a rise of around 146%. A move this large usually means that the silver is getting strong inflows into the crypto market.

Social media also reflects this change. Some traders say silver “made more money than crypto” in 2025. Others expect the price to reach $63 soon.

A few analysts warn it may cool down toward $44–$46, but the larger point stays the same. More people are watching metals because they are rising while Bitcoin is falling.

This is important for the crypto market because metals do well when people want safer assets.

When silver and gold rise faster than crypto prices during a rate-cut cycle, it usually means traders are still careful. They may wait for ETF inflows and better market conditions before betting on the crypto market again.

Can the Crypto Market Recover Anytime Soon?

The crypto market fell more than 30% from the October top and is still trying to recover. The market needs new inflows before it can lead again.

Bitcoin often reacts well after a rate cut, but that move usually comes after liquidity improves. For now, silver is the stronger asset because demand is high and supply is shrinking.

A rate cut may help Bitcoin later, but the early benefit went to metals. Another December cut might come, and that could decide the next direction of the money flow.

The main question now is simple. If silver keeps rising like this, does Bitcoin, or rather the entire crypto market, recover in the next phase of the rate-cut cycle, or do metals keep investor attention for a little longer?