Of course ripple will be a leader this year. Ripple is scalable, fast and cheap. Without those quality, a coin can't be used as a currency. Bitcoin isn't fast, cheap, or scalable anymore, neither is ethereum.
If a coin isn't almost free and instant, it loses his edge over traditional fiat system. Sure bitcoin will stick as a "bitcoin standard" for crypto market (like gold used to be for the fiat system), but in the gold-standard, people were using fiat to transact, not gold. In the crypto world, people will stop using bitcoin for everyday use and replace it with something more convenient.
So ripple isn't what we dreamed about, but it will keep growing fast in 2018, that's for sure.
all the developers are sure to work hard to make his project grow and we know there are many partnerships done ripple lately. but it does not bring any change to the ripple, ripple needs a real action and not a statement. I also disagree and do not believe that ripple can be a leader this year.