Key Reason Why Bitcoin Just Reclaimed $17,000

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has spiked to a two-week high of $17,010 on the Bitstamp exchange. Image by tradingview.com

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has nearly 4% over the last 24 hours.

The most recent price uptick came on the cusp of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's much-anticipated speech that is going to take place this Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, an American research group that was founded back in 1916.

The market will be looking for clues about the central bank's future monetary policy. Over the past few weeks, multiple Fed officials have indicated that the central bank could hike the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points.

The Fed's aggressive monetary policy is considered to be the main reason behind the collapse of cryptocurrency prices this week. Other risk assets also took a severe hit this year, with interest rates surging to the highest level since 2008.

Earlier this month, the Fed approved the fourth 75-basis-point hike in a row.