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It has been a relatively soft few hours of trading for the crypto markets as small declines were seen across the board. Overall, the market shed 0.5 percent of its value over a 24-hour period to $210.6billion (£160billion), according to Coin Market Cap. BTC’s price was given a major lift earlier this week with the launch of Fidelity Asset Services - a business that plans to handle cryptocurrency custody and trade execution for institutional investors. The service promises to “secure, compliant, and institutional-grade omnibus storage solution for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets”.

In a knee-jerk reaction to the launch, crypto markets were initially propelled to new heights in a sudden spike in the digital assets' value. But the lift was short-lived as the momentum slowed and prices started to fall, stabilising cryptos across the board. The preliminary surge in price occurred on October 15, when BTC’s value rose sharply to almost $7,000 (£5,300) only to plummet back to $6,590 (£5,000) within the space of just four hours. The vast swing in BTC’s price is indicative of cryptocurrencies in general - the unpredictable digital assets are extremely volatile and sometimes experience huge fluctuations in value over short periods of time.

Bitcoin's price is down after a sudden surge in value

Bitcoin price news: a chart shows the surge and fall in BTC's price

Bitcoin price news: a graph shows how the price shot up and then stabilised again in hours

Sam Enrico Williams, of cryptocurrency due diligence platform Zloadr.com, told Express.co.uk: “The crypto market is still extremely volatile so you need to keep an eye on your assets 24/7. “The market can be brutal. “My brother and I have got some horror stories of friends of ours going to bed a millionaire and waking up a pauper because their holdings tanked overnight.”

Bitcoin’s position in the cryptocurrency market is influenced by “seasoned investors” who are implementing novel “equity strategies” to capitalise on the boom, David Thomas has argued. The Director and Co-Founder of GlobalBlock told Express.co.uk: “There was a growing feeling that Bitcoin (BTC) was a ‘digital gold’ asset and as such should weather such wider storms as equity market volatility. “The fact that this hasn’t happened is interesting as it suggests to us that more and more seasoned investors with wider portfolios are getting into cryptocurrencies and are using similar equity strategies to manage their positions.”

Bitcoin price news: cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile assets