The surge in Bitcoin's value over the last week is credited to a couple factors, the main driver seems to be the growing mistrust of traditional banks. As reports of bank failures and bailouts continue to make headlines, investors are turning to alternative forms of investment to safeguard their wealth. Bitcoin's decentralized nature has made it an attractive option for those looking to spread risk across different investment types.

The Federal Reserve's announcement of an emergency loan program to backstop depositors as three regional U.S. banks collapsed only added to Bitcoin's momentum.

The gains stopped today - for what may end up just a 'short pause'...

That momentum hit bump today as the Federal Reserve's decision to raise its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, as well as its indication that it is unlikely to cut its key interest rate this year, led to a pullback.

Despite the setback, in the big picture Bitcoin remains largely unaffected having surged from $22,000 to $28,000 over the past week, and today's losses have it settling around $27,000 (at the time of publishing) - the overwhelming majority of its recent gains remain intact.

The reasons that sparked the last bull run remain present, and may even intensify - unless there's some unexpected bad news, things could turn bullish again at any moment.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk 
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