Monero is one of the best (if not the best) privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies in the world. Anonymity is enforced by default, making sure your transactions are safe from prying eyes. It's no wonder why XMR is the top privacy coin in market cap. Competitors like DASH, Zcash, BEAM, and even Grin don't stand a chance against Monero's ever-growing user base and mainstream demand. Yet, non-privacy coins are faring better on the market with higher gains within such a short amount of time.
I'm wondering why hasn't Monero taken off yet? Do you think government regulations have affected Monero's ability to go higher in price? If not, then what could be the reason? Is Monero a good long-term investment? Or are there better choices on the market (besides Bitcoin and Ethereum)? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

You're starting to see a few references to Monero in the mainstream news - mainly about these hackers who are exploiting scale scale software and ransoming back encrypted data to a variety of businesses. It seems like it is trapped in a catch-22 situation where it is not being used on a wide enough scale to hide the ill-gotten gains and won't be used until that is possible. When criminals start using it a large scale is when it will have broken that challenge and might start to attract larger scale investors. On the flipside - Bitcoin has been moderately tolerated by governments because it is "less" anonymous than Monero, but anything creating greater difficulty might be subject to bans much more quickly.