Hive account@the-beard good question. Quoted from the official “BitShares: State of the Nation”:

“Current registered wallets/accounts within the Bitshares network is 897514; an increase of 10689 wallets/accounts since last week“

Growing at the rate of 10,000+ new users, I personally believe that they are in great shape. Having said that, the more improvements rolled out (and there are many on the road map), the more users will obviously increase the underlying value of BitShare’s platform.

On another note, it is important to know that BitShares is not just a DEX exchange. It is a platform for smart coins (think: all the hard work done for those wishing to ICO), it is also a platform that can be built upon. At present there are many companies using it and there will be many more in the future.

I suggest you read: https://steemit.com/bitshares/@steempower/bitshares-state-of-the-network-1st-may-2018

You will find the details of those deals.