The market at the end of 2025 presents an interesting contrast: the precious metals market has experienced a wave of "epic" gains, with both silver and gold hitting record highs. Silver and gold have both refreshed their historical highs, but Bitcoin has been oscillating repeatedly in the 85k-90k range, with its performance for the year being somewhat subdued. This contrast is indeed fascinating.

Let's look at recent data performance (as of December 26-27): spot silver prices have already broken through $76/oz, setting a new record high. Starting from about $29 at the beginning of the year, the annual increase exceeds 150-160%, making it one of the strongest assets this year. Regarding gold, spot prices touched a new high around $4530-4532/oz, with an annual increase of approximately 70-74%, marking the best yearly performance since 1979.

Why have precious metals been so strong this year? Several factors have stacked up: firstly, the Fed's rate cut expectations combined with the US dollar's pressure, which is classic bullish logic for precious metals. Secondly, geopolitical instability has increased, prompting global risk assets to seek safe havens. Looking at silver, demand from solar PV, electric vehicles, AI chips, and military industries has exploded, but supply-side shortages have directly driven prices higher. Gold, as a traditional safe-haven asset, has also benefited from continuous central bank purchases (including China), and under this dual push, it naturally strengthened.

Comparing this to Bitcoin's performance: BTC is currently hovering around $87,000-$89,000, down 20-30% from its annual high. During this period, there was also a bizarre flash crash in a major exchange's USDT trading pair (wicking down to $24k before bouncing back instantly). These abnormal fluctuations reflect liquidity fragility. Institutional funds and ETF inflows have slowed, options expirations and holiday liquidity are thin, and risk assets have been sidelined.

In simple terms, the market narrative for 2025 is "deleveraging + safe-haven," which has pushed capital into real hard assets (precious metals), leaving "digital gold" Bitcoin aside. Many market veterans joke that the "upside gains that Bitcoin should have had" have now been taken over by silver. Silver's gains this year have suppressed both gold and Bitcoin, thanks to its dual "industrial + monetary" attributes, which are very attractive.

What does the next market look like? Will precious metals continue to stay hot, or will Bitcoin catch up after options expirations and the holiday season? Or is 2026 the real turning point for digital assets?