It's because of the bitcoin price that has got the attention of the people especially those big players in the market like wall street. Bitcoin is in front page of wall street journal making people more convinced to check and researched more about cryptocurrency. Last year maybe they already heard about it but thought that its just a fad because the price is not that significant yet but now when they see the price thrice the price of an ounce of gold then that made them more convinced to take a look. More people are talking about it now than a year ago in my place as well.