Gold and silver’s historic year pushes combined market cap up by $16 trillion

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Gold and silver have seen $16 trillion in added value this year.That’s the total increase in their combined market cap for 2025, according to data from Bloomberg.

Just this one wild year. Both metals crushed everything else. Gold is up 4 times more than the S&P 500. Silver is up 8 times.

This whole thing all started with the US Dollar falling apart, plunging down by 9% year-to-date in its worst yearly performance since 2017.

Then came the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts, which began in September, causing the dollar to lose more strength. And things got messier when President Donald Trump announced on December 12 that he simply wants “1% and maybe lower than that” from the Fed.

China tightens silver exports as price hits $85 in Shanghai

Silver is up 175% this year, running on an 8-month winning streak, something we haven’t seen since 1980. Just this month, silver prices are up 41%, heading for their best month since December 1979.

The Shanghai price is now $85/oz, which is $5 higher than US spot prices and came right before president Xi Jinping’s new export rules kick in for 2026. These rules will force companies to get special government licenses before shipping silver out of the country. And now, everyone’s watching Shanghai as buyers rush in before the controls hit.

In Q3 2025, the People’s Bank of China bought 118 tonnes, up 39% month-over-month and 55% compared to last year, though according to Goldman Sachs, China is “hiding” the real numbers.

They officially said they bought +15 tonnes in September, but the actual number was closer to 10 times that. So far this year, China claims it’s bought 24 tonnes, but Goldman says the real total is probably closer to 240 tonnes.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is down 6% in 2025. It was up 40% earlier this year, then tanked. Leverage killed it. The whole crypto market got wrecked and Cryptopolitan cannot tell you what 2026 might hold for the OG crypto. We all will have to just wait and see.

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