I would agree that everything is moving a lot faster these days; BTC has gone from being a "thinly traded fringe security" to being something many people on the street are familiar with.
The thing I'm increasingly looking for is the point at which alt. coins start to detach from BTC... where "as Bitcoin goes, so goes the market" is no longer a reality.
That may take some time still. I don't think that will happen until coins are listed on regular exchanges, where they all can be bought with fiat.