Monero price increase in 2016 was not due some new markets opened. But was due that darkmarkets recognized Monero as best fungible currency. With few markets closing that recognition still stays as valid.
With all new people in crypto and so much more money and so much more media expose of Monero and so much more development that is allready big and just keeps increasing. I and many are surprised that Monero managed to increase its price only 3 times in 2017.
Monero has only gotten major media attention recently. A lot of the crypto explosion that came since March of this year has been from ETH and all of the ICOs that have spawned. That's where all the money is right now. Remember when all the attention was on ETH and the "flippening"?