Waves has been speculated to be he next big thing but it's just the hype and marketing but we have not seen any significant increase as of now.
It might not necessarily be the next big thing but it's certainly undervalued at the moment and the team has been actively developing and promoting it. Waves-NG went live on mainnet in December, new desktop app was launched this month, there's been a few partnerships confirmed and they've been working to launch fully compliant ICOs in Singapore soon. Plus of course the big update is smart contracts which should be in Q1.
Wouldn't be surprised at all if Waves got a major pump soon like BCH few months ago.