the issue is long solved and was much smaller than expected.
I think the biggest advantage of counterparty protocol is that you do not need to go the way btc-> nxt -> asset. you can simply buy the asset with btc.
the "currency" (xcp) of the protocol has a completely different function. it can be taken in escrow on the blockchain (until now impossible with bitcoin). It will be probably in short term be used for betting, mid-term for CFDs and long term as insurance.
BTW I used NXT AE and I was quite impressed by the easy to use functionality as well as the speed. kudos.
Ok, if the issue was solved, that's fine, I actually liked XCP when I used it in its early stages, although it was quite buggy then, until NXT AE came along. XCP can survive, at least as long as Bitcoin survives, but you always have to worry about 51% attacks and such. With NXT you just don't have those worries and time between blocks is much shorter, so trading is closer to centralized exchange speed of trading.
FIAT->BTC->NXT->Asset will soon be shortned to FIAT->NXT->Asset, as there are fiat gateways under way, that's just a matter of time.