I guess more people are trading nowdays, more money is overall in the cryptocurrencies and i would say the growth of the new great projects should be way faster then last year in in the same period.
the crypto space is great right now because for the most part, it's a low barrier to entry (for many coins). as many (or all to some) are speculative plays, people will look at "hot" markets (ie. cryptocurrencies) as interesting, and want to invest. this is based on fomo (from people not investing in bitcoin from it's infancy), people recognizing / forecasting on the blockchain trend, and others simply seeing the value and believing what blockchain technology can do. i imagine this will accelerate growth, as bitcoin and ethereum have been so prevalent in the news, and therefore introducing more of the masses to the world of alt's.
my 0.2