I do not understand why Blocknet's name has become more popular lately. As far as I know, it has been present for a long time. Right?
Honestly, I've just heard their name recently because the most popular that I've been hearing before is always IDEX. I've used the dex personally until they started to ask about KYC. I don't know about blocknet on how long they already are.
But Binance took over it easily, they have an established centralized exchange and upon building up a so called 'dex', they've easily gathered the attention of every trader that likes dexes.
IDEX is not even close to being a real DEX.
A real DEX does NOT:
Require you to login
Require personal info
Furthermore, it can't be shut down, it's not "owned" by anybody (Hint: Binance DEX is not a real DEX).
Blocknet and Komodo is by far the best ones out there, been in the game for the longest time, and Blocknet is not only a "DEX Project", they'll do way more than that in the future.
I'm long on both projects. Binance will eventually be like Poloniex or Bittrex is today. That's my prediction anyway