Most people in here aren't seeing the big picture with Ethereum on a protocol level let's go over a few (very) important things coming in the near future.
Metropolis (Ethereum 3.0) - This upgrade is slated for Aug/Sept and will be the first upgrade since Homestead (Ethereum 2.0) from early last year and for reference Frontier (Ethereum 1.0). Metropolis will bring with it some huge upgrades.
Raiden - Currently Ethereum can process a max of 15 transactions per second, Bitcoin can do about 7. This is nowhere near what Visa does at 40k/tx per second. You've heard of Bitcoins lightening network which will enable Bitcoin to do infinite tx/sec? Well Raiden enables the exact same thing on Ethereum by creating what are called "Payment Channels". Not gonna go into too much detail but it's like Bob and Carol agree to put a $100 deposit into an account and write notes saying one or the other owes $x amount, then on a predetermined day one of you squares up the account by making one large transaction on the Ethereum blockchain.
ZN-Snarks - You know how your friends tell you Ethereum isn't anonymous like Monero or ZCash? Well ZK-Snarks will enable you to selectively make transactions public or private. It's the same standard used for ZCash but implemented on the protocol level on top of Ethereum. This is a big part of Enterprise Ethereum Alliances road map which is why JP Morgan is working with ZCash to implement it into Quorum (JP Morgan private Ethereum Chain) as well. Ethereum is basically taking all the best features from other coins and implementing them.
Ice Age - Currently, there are ~93 Million ETH circulating with 5 ETH created every 15 seconds (15% annual inflation) during the last upgrade (Frontier) there was an "Ice Age" coded into Ethereum which would slow down the creation of ETH on a curve that would eventually freeze up Ethereum. The reason for this was to force the developers to finish up Metropolis before the network froze up. One side effect of the ice age is that the creation of ETH slows down thus reducing the rate of inflation but also increasing the transaction time. We're beginning to see the first effects of it and by August it'll be 5 ETH created every ~30 seconds.
Casper - Shortly after Metropolis, Ethereum will release the actual figures for Casper as well as the first of 5 phases which will move Ethereum from PoW (Proof of Work) using mining rigs and computers to approve transactions to PoS (Proof of Stake). What happens with PoS is instead of miners running all the time, you will have people holding ETH "Stake" their ETH and basically lock their ETH up in a smart contract while running software on their internet connected computer. In return for locking their ETH up, they will earn interest on it at an undermined rate (figures Vitalik has floated around varies from 6-12% annually). Not everyone will be able to stake, Vitalik has stated that the inflation rate of ETH will drop from 15% currently down to 0-2%. With basic supply and demand math you should be able to figure out what that means for the price.
Casper is a major reason people are stocking up on ETH. Imagine if in 1 year you could lock up 1000 ETH and earn 120 ETH per year? If the price is $1000/ETH you're talking USD $120k annual without selling any of your original ETH.
I hope they hurry up with Raiden, because at this speed and the FOMO on the ICOs the chain is becoming quite difficult to use for normal, every day usage.
But the next steps are absolutely amazing and will bring the project to a total different level!
3 months after your comment. Issues with the BTC/ETH transactions have worsen!
To be honest with the FOMO reduction transactions are much faster now....
https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-confirmation-time look at the average time, compare to June we are in much better shape now ;) But I agree, it is not the optimal solution yet!
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