Ethereum has some very strong competition in the smart contract sector, but as the first and original project to do it, I think they will always be market leaders. However, they need to ensure that they do not need to take too long to make the necessary changes.
2018 has been a difficult time for the entire cryptocurrency industry and when Bitcoin loses value, most other coins generally follow.
I'm sure Ethereum's price will increase. The reason for this is that even though the network is only capable of processing 15 transactions per second, it is still the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the industry.