I think that people finally have a picture of how game-changing ETH technology is. It has been undervalued at $300 for so long, and because it was undervalued it stod its ground when there was a bloodbath on alt market. Most of the money from alts slowly started to pour into the safe harbour (ETH) and it is finally getting the attention it deserves.
There is also an upcoming update Casper where POS (Proof Of Stake) will be introduced, which will allow users to stake and get passive income.
As far as the price goes, ETH is still undervalued and a great buy. My humble prediction is that it is going to reach $2000 next year.
Actually, it did not stand its ground during the "bloodbath" at various times of the year, it rose and fell with other alts. Just look around. ETH new ATH, but so are Dash, Monero, Zencash, Litecoin etc,,, NOT to mention Bitcoin! Meaning it has not really stood on its own properly yet. If Bitcoin and others languish, and ETH keeps shooting for the moon,,, then yes maybe it is finally independent.
But anyway, ETH has to be respected for managing to endure this difficult two years and I think it is good news all around for alt holders. Eth will always be a good product even if we cannot call it a true leader of crypto, it is a true leader for corporate governance.