Ether started this year at the price of BTC in January 2017. Bitcoin touched 20k in December 2017 and it is very likely that Ether follows with a huge Bullrun this year. Fundamentals looking very promising with a lot of dApps going live, Proof of Stake in Development and Scaling Solutions like Sharding being implemented. Privacy Implementations like zKSnarks, the Zero Knowledge Proof Technology behind ZEC, are already possible with Ethereum as well in form of babyZoe project.
Current Transaction Volume is more than all other blockchains combined, and it is the most scalable chain that is in production.
About 80% of the Top 200 Tokens on Coinmarketcap are Ethereum based Tokens and require Ether for Transactions. I think a lot of projects and coins will disappear over the year but Ether is here to stay. Just to name a few Projects that will push the Market Sentiment when they go live soon are:
ethfinex.com Exchange by Bitfinex Ethfinex is the home of digital tokens trading & discussion. Built for the Ethereum community, using Ethereum.
... uPort Identity Management dApp, one of my favourite usecases for private secure IDs and logins without revealing your adress, photo and ID to unsecure websites and services. Available in the iOS Appstore. (City of Zug/Switzerland already has registered its citizens via uPort) ... Augur and Gnosis Prediction Market Melonport Maker Stable Coin Digix Global gold backed Tokens ...
It could even be that the "Flippening" of the BTC Marketcap is coming this year, don't miss the opportunity to invest in the most disruptive technology since the invention of the steam engine. Bitcoin is disrupting Finance, Ethereum is disrupting all sectors of global economy like Finance, Supply Chain Tracking, Identity Management, Music Industry, Insurances, Asset management, Sharing Economy, IOT... to name a few!
This year we also will see the first Developments of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance entethalliance.org, who's members collaborate on writing code for different usecases. "The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance connects Fortune 500 enterprises, startups, academics, and technology vendors with Ethereum subject matter experts. Together, we will learn from and build upon the only smart contract supporting blockchain currently running in real-world production – Ethereum – to define enterprise-grade software capable of handling the most complex, highly demanding applications at the speed of business." If you look at the members you know that this is no joke entethalliance.org/members/
Ether is also my coin of the year 2018. But I would already be happy, if Ether could reach 2000 Dollars ;-)