I think XRP era has already ended. You can see the price dropped in MarketCap. As i already know, the price just pumped by Big Whale for spesific purpose. Nothing special for XRP
Ripple is signing new companies to work with every week. Sure, the majority of them are not using XRP, but some of them are. Big names too, like moneygram.
[Suspicious link removed]j.com/articles/moneygram-signs-deal-to-work-with-currency-startup-ripple-1515679285
As it becomes more and more clear that using XRP will save these companies even more time and money than Ripple is already saving them, they will begin to use XRP as well. The transaction volume of XRP is going to through the roof in 2018.
I short, there are many special things happening for XRP at the moment.