I think that any cryptocurrency token needs a real world use case if it is to succeed in future. This means that the people investing in it are doing so for more than just speculative profit. Steem blockchain defines the very meaning of real world use by bringing platforms like musing,io and steemit.com to our fingertips. 

Getting paid for content creation is not ground breaking but what is ground breaking is the fact that the Steem ecosystem is incentivized in manner that a user has a stake in the  system (Vested SP).  Therefore most of the users are financially invested in the platform. This increases user retention and loyalty to the Steem blockchain, since users are invested to see the platform succeed. 

Here are the reasons why I think that the Steem prices will rise again:

1.   The upcoming HF20 is geared towards making dapps the kings on the  Steem blockchain. It will effectively make sure that you can make Steem  accounts on the dapp itself. Dapps will become free from having to go   to steemit.com to register your account. 

2.  Platforms like  musing.io will grow, gathering and collecting the SP for their needs and  this will  create a shortage of Steem in the market and thus raise the  Steem prices.

3.  SMT's will soon follow in January and  will  allow dapps to issue their  own tokens based on the native token Steem.  To issue  tokens they will need to collect  more Steem to back their  tokens and  thus create further shortage of Steem tokens in the market.  This in turn will further raise the price of  Steem.