It has been a positive start to the week for the crypto market with strong gains being seen across almost all major coins.
This has led to the crypto market adding 3.9% to its value over the last 24 hours, giving it a market capitalisation of US$209.9 billion according to Coin Market Cap.
At one stage the market had climbed as much as 9.4% to US$221.4 billion on Monday before profit taking led to prices pulling back a touch.
Why is the crypto market surging higher?
Traders have been fighting to get hold of coins after Fidelity announced the launch of Fidelity Digital Asset Services. The new business will handle cryptocurrency custody and trade execution for institutional investors.
According to CNBC, its services will be available to institutions such as hedge funds, endowments, and family offices but not to retail investors.
Traders appear to believe this could be the start of institutional money flooding into the market, supporting or even driving prices higher in the medium term. Considering Fidelity administers US$7.2 trillion in customer assets, has 27 million customers, and 13,000 institutional clients, I can see why they may be excited by this development.
However, only time will tell whether institutional money finds its way into the crypto market in the near future.
In the meantime, here is the state of play on Tuesday morning compared to 24 hours ago:
The Bitcoin (BTC) price has climbed 3.9% to US$6,573.87, lifting its market capitalisation to US$113.9 billion.
The Ethereum (ETH) price has pushed 4.4% higher to US$207.48. This gives ETH a market capitalisation of US$21.3 billion.
The Ripple (XRP) price has jumped 6.2% higher to 44.36 U.S. cents. The XRP market capitalisation has now climbed to US$17.75 billion.
The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) price is up 2.8% to US$457.69. This gives the Bitcoin spin off a market capitalisation of just under US$8 billion.
The EOS (EOS) price has risen 4.5% to US$5.45, giving EOS an improved market capitalisation of US$4.9 billion.
Outside the top five things were equally positive. Stellar (XLM) is up 3.5%, Litecoin (LTC) has risen 3.6%, Cardano (ADA) has climbed 2.1%, and Monero (XMR) is 4.1% higher.
The only coin in the top ten that isn't in positive territory is Tether (USD). It is down 1% to 97.8 U.S. cents after reports suggested that the U.S. dollar-backed coin didn't have the full backing it claims to have. Tether is supposed to be backed 1:1 by USD held in a bank account and available on demand.
