I know at current stage this question sounds very strange but with upcoming implementation of SMTs in March 2019, it can actually become reality. Let's see in little detail what repercussion it can have for Future of STEEM.

Comparison with Ethereum

There are only 2 coins currently which support additional tokens on their own blockchain

• Ethereum
• Neo

Ethereum is no doubt a very valuable cryptocurrency currently ranked#2 after Bitcoin and offered unique solution of Smart Contracts but with release of Smart Media Tokens, Steem can directly compete with Ethereum.

Ethereum	Steem
Transaction Speed:
15/ Second	10,000/ Second
Average Transaction Price:
1$	Zero

Scalability issues of Ethereum are already all over the place and current blockchain activity of Steem is already more than Ethereum

Future Market Cap and Price

During last Bullish Market when cryptocurrency market was $850 Billion

• Ethereum crossed barrier of $1000 and attained All Time High value of aprox $1200
• Neo managed to attain ATH value of $200.

Now the more interesting question is, if Steemit Inc implements SMTs successfully and perform accordingly then what can stop Steem to get beyond its ATH of $8 and eventually cross $100 ?

Yes, there are also other coins too in market which are competing to claim the throne of Blockchain 3.0 like Zilliqa, EOS, Cardano, Arcblock, Aion etc but only time will which eventually outperform others.
All of this is just speculation of what can eventually happen to in Q1 2019 and actual events can be slight different but so far things look promising and there is no harm in hoping for the best.

End Note:

@timcliff has recently taken great initiative Steem Blast to promote Steem and i think you should definitely check out following post and his blog for that
STEEM to the Moon! ☽ (SteemBlast is Today) 💥 Everyone Read 💥

And just a side-note of how Ethereum is performing right now ;)