Vendor adoption rate is going pretty strong on the darkmarkets. Most serious vendors now accept Monero. That's great.
From my POV, this a major milestone. Because a number of our community members who have been focused on research and development in this space for nearly a decade began to doubt that would ever be possible.

[Whether you like Darknet trading or not.] This acceptance give's our project real world usage, hands-on operation experience in a critical environment, exposure (by media and researchers) and feedback from regular users.
This can be base, a solid starting point (which 99% of all boot strapped projects never reach) to expand the Monero ecosystem above the cryptocurrency-scene into the real world, in order to create an independent, healthy and durable Monero economy.

The XMR tech works, the community is strong, trustworthiness is established, now grey market usage illustrates that a growing number of independent people trading online recognize Monero as a (valuable) currency.
-> The demand for a token with Monero characteristics is real.


If we keep Monero fair and dezentralized, Monero will be the project & technology that finally allowed the creation of a completely anonymous egalitarian cryptocurrency, which empowers end-users with true privacy, both financial and personal.