For the fact that they raised a lot of funds from conducting ICO doesn't mean they are gaining popularity or they will gain popularity.
A popular exchange don't need a lot of introduction before anyone knows about it, we can see same for exchange like binance, which even newbies who don't know much about crypto still know what binance is but this exchange you mentioned is one that I haven't heard of their operations or even heard of the ICO that was earlier carried out.
Binance had first movers advantage. If Nauticus would of launched during the 2016 or early 2017 era, then they would be in the same position as Binance. A lot of community members are new to crypto, they don't remember how ancient these exchanges are lol.