What are you curious about? 

Personally, I don't know what drives the market.  I think it's insanity.  That's why I hold and don't trade.  I'm always looking for other projects, but they always have a flaw I can't live with.  Dash has a flaw, the "instamine" at the beginning, but I personally don't think that's a flaw.  I think it was fortuitous that it happened.  Dash ended up with quick cheap distribution and amazingly, even some of the first big holders and supporters sold off their holdings and new supporters came around. 

But why the price we have now?  I don't know.  I personally think it's extremely low and my family just bought another masternode last week.

If you think monero's price is so high now because people are "using" it for dark markets, you'd also be kidding yourself.  It's almost all speculation.  They got some good PR, and so all the trader/gamblers jump in on a band wagon, each thinking they know when it'll hit the top and will jump off at that point.

Nothing against Monero's rise, I'm just irritated with the fickle marketplace.  I prefer more sanity.  My stomach gets tied up in knots when Dash rockets up, because I fear that the following dump will be devastating to Dash's credibility.  This pump on Monero would make me sick if it were Dash, mostly because I really care about Dash.

But of course, ultimately, monero holders have no control on what's happening.  No more so than Dash holders would.  So if I believed in Monero, I'd just brace myself.  After Dash's big pump on Mintpal, it was in the dumps for over a year!  All pumps and dumps do is malign projects, even if they're good projects.

But it's a damn good show, eh?