There are already many analytical articles about the sharp rise and fall of gold and silver. Yesterday's video by Xiao Lin provided a more detailed and easy-to-understand analysis, worth watching.

I summarized the video content with Gemini
The core reasons for the rapid rise of gold and silver
Macroeconomic and fiat currency credit crisis:
Debt explosion: U.S. national debt soared to $38 trillion, triggering a collective market anxiety about the long-term purchasing power of the dollar system.
"Devaluation trade" driving: Investors buy large amounts of hard assets to hedge against currency devaluation risk. Gold prices once approached $5600 per ounce, and silver, as a "high beta" asset, saw more aggressive gains, with an annual increase close to 300%.
Structural supply shortages and industrial demand:
Strategic mineral status: Silver is redefined as a core material for artificial intelligence (AI) and energy transition. The demand for highly conductive silver from AI data centers and high-performance chip packaging is growing exponentially.
Photovoltaic industry support: The widespread adoption of N-type battery technologies (such as TOPCon and HJT) significantly increases silver consumption per unit of power generation.
Inelastic supply: About 71% of global silver is a byproduct of other metal mining. Even if silver prices double, mines find it difficult to expand production quickly, leading to a supply gap for six consecutive years.
Derivatives market "short squeeze" and physical squeeze:
Paper silver virtual market collapse: The trading volume of paper contracts in the COMEX and LBMA markets once reached 356-375 times the physical stock.
Physical withdrawal wave: When investors demand physical delivery, COMEX registered warehouse stocks decreased by 26% within a week, forcing short sellers to panic buy back, pushing prices to a high of $120.
The "perfect storm" causing price crashes
Kevin Warsh nominated as Fed Chair:
Policy expectations shift: On January 30, Trump nominated Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve Chair. Warsh is viewed as a "hawkish" monetary policy advocate, inclined to maintain a strong dollar and tightly control inflation.
Hedging logic collapse: Previously, the market bet on the Fed unlimitedly printing money. Warsh's appointment shattered this illusion, causing the dollar index to rebound rapidly and severely damaging precious metal valuations.
Chain reaction of "longs killing longs" in trading mechanisms:
Margin hike: CME increased the initial margin for silver futures from 11% to 15%, and even raised it to 18% for high-risk accounts.
Forced liquidation spiral: Due to the parabolic rise of silver, the market was extremely crowded with high leverage. Slight price declines triggered massive systemic forced liquidations, resulting in a historic crash of 35%-37% in a single day.
Unexpected easing of geopolitical tensions:
Risk premium withdrawal: During the crash, the U.S. and Iran confirmed nuclear negotiations, signaling a cooling of Middle East tensions. The safe-haven funds that had entered due to war fears quickly exited.
Profit-taking after technical overbought:
Divergence indicators: Silver's monthly Relative Strength Index (RSI) reached a high of 91, even surpassing levels seen during the "Hunter Brothers" period in 1980, indicating a strong technical correction is needed.
Gold-silver ratio mean reversion: The gold-silver ratio compressed to 45:1 at its peak (a 2014 low), indicating silver was extremely overbought relative to gold, prompting institutional portfolio adjustments and sell-offs.