bitcoin is now surging ahead after some major downtrend

I can't quite place my finger on the reasons why that is the case, but there seems to be genuine interest building around it after a speculative drive and in the end of 2017 beginning of 18, in the first place I think that it is the lightning network that has brought bitcoin back as an option for micropayments and applications involving it, taking some potential market share from stablecoins and centralized cryptos like ripple, alts in general haven't rallied back as powerfully as bitcoin has, and bitcoin has regained dominance pushing on 50%