The reason behind the sharp sell off in silver is related to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME or the Merc) margin requirements. Those margin requirements have been raised 4 times in the last 8 trading days, with the most recent coming last night.
It certainly seems like the CME is deliberately trying to bring silver prices down. I've read that the CME doesn't have enough silver to deliver and meet the demand of outstanding futures contracts. I've also read that big banks may be short silver and making some noise. (JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) has been accused in the last year for trying to manipulate silver prices.)