The story begins with the violent swings in silver over recent weeks. The price of the precious metal has surged at a dizzying pace, only to reverse just as quickly, prompting market experts to ask a critical question: When does an asset stop trading on fundamentals and start behaving like a meme phenomenon?
Silver’s extreme price action has increasingly drawn comparisons to famous meme stocks such as GameStop. The video game retailer became a global sensation in 2021, when millions of retail investors on Reddit piled in, driving its share price to heights that traditional valuation models could not explain.
Meme assets share easily recognizable traits: parabolic price increases, frenzied participation by retail investors, and viral narratives on social media that sometimes completely overshadow fundamentals. Liquidity pours in rapidly, but it can also exit just as quickly.
Michael Antonelli, a market strategist at Robert W. Baird, made a blunt comparison on X: “How is silver any different from GameStop? Hasn’t this already become a meme?”
Speaking to CNBC, he explained that the precious metal has become red-hot among retail traders, who have begun acting in concert. While silver does have industrial and consumer uses, its price does not typically rise more than 100% in just three months. “It has completely detached from reality and gone straight up due to retail flows,” he said.
The Reddit army stirs again
The data show that this frenzy is anything but small. On January 26, retail investors poured a net $171 million into the iShares Silver Trust, a popular ETF that tracks silver prices, according to market research firm VandaTrack. That figure was nearly double the previous record set in 2021.
On February 3, New York silver futures surged nearly 8% to $83 per ounce. Over the past month alone, silver has recorded ten moves of 5% or more in either direction.
“Silver has now become the new favorite toy of retail investors,” said Vanda analyst Ashwin Bhakre.
This enthusiasm is clearly visible on Reddit, the platform that played a central role in the original meme stock phenomenon. Forums such as WallStreetBets helped coordinate retail buying of GameStop in 2021.
On the Reddit forum Silverbugs—where users share purchases of physical silver, debate price targets, and trade memes—posts following the recent sell-off strongly reflected meme-stock culture.
“Bought the dip today! Diamond hands,” wrote Reddit user Jstaakz after the January 30 sell-off.
Another user asked for advice on whether to hold or sell silver purchased at $48 per ounce last June.
“Silver is the GameStop of 2026,” Antonelli concluded.
A frenzy
Many analysts argue that silver’s behavior has crossed a dangerous threshold they have seen before.
Rhona O’Connell, Head of Market Analysis at StoneX, warned that silver prices have become detached from sustainable fundamentals. “Silver has been inflated beyond fair value in a self-feeding frenzy. However, this metal is notoriously volatile, and history is littered with examples of price collapses,” she said.
Tom Sosnoff, CEO of fintech platform Lossdog, went further by including gold in the meme category: “Gold and silver have completely become the meme commodities of 2026… Silver’s moves are insane… We are seeing multi-year moves in less than 30 days.”
“Massive volume, massive volatility, but not much logic or clear reasoning. You can come up with as many fundamental or technical explanations as you like, but this is meme-stock trading,” Sosnoff said.
He also warned newcomers drawn in by headlines and social media hype. “If you’ve never traded silver futures or ETFs, be careful. These are large contracts, with violent swings at levels we’ve never seen before.”
Henrietta Treyz, Managing Partner at Veda Partners, said the momentum is unmistakable. “The moves in precious metals are truly remarkable, whether gold or silver. And from an outside observer’s perspective, you can clearly see that the meme-stock element is very strong and alive. It reminds me of GameStop.”
However, not everyone agrees with categorizing silver as an asset driven purely by narrative.
Vasu Menon, Managing Director of Investment Strategy at OCBC, argued that silver “sometimes behaves like a meme commodity, but fundamentally it is not.” He pointed to genuine industrial demand from solar panels, electric vehicles, and electronics. That said, Menon acknowledged that speculative activity has amplified recent volatility, and that sharp corrections are part of silver’s inherent “DNA.”
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