Lots of things are happening in Steem world. However, market is still flat. In fact, Steem came back to lower 39 rank after HF20-bound pump to 33. The lesson is that in bear market, alts does not move a needle upward even with lots of good news relates to them (e.g. Steem's up-gradation through HF20).
Traders at the exchange are not aware of them. They come back when they see a big upward TICK or high volume to trade for some profits. That holy-grail of Uptick is either created by a co-ordinate trader group or a whale taking a position (e.g. buying 200K Steem at once). It is sad that traders control the altcoin market besides it fundamentals. DOGEcoin and BitcoinDiamond shows that a gimmick coin can upheld top position just being favored by traders (e.g. volume) rather than fundamentals.
In the meantime, STEEM reward pool reached almost at 100K STEEM due to low activities during the hardfork or some say, freeing rewards from spammer(!) which is a boon for regular steemians.
There are lots of talks in Steem-blogsphere about STEEM's competitor or clones. However, I would say it is good for STEEM. It is flattery in disguise. It shows that STEEM like blockchains have market demand. It will also push STINC and community work harder to fend of any competitor. Moreover, they will work as as test-beds for STEEM similar to Litecoin is working as a test-bed for Bitcoin.
There are lots UI out there for steem blockchain and some are attracting users due to their great features. However, @ned recently talked about new UI that created some confusion and euphoria among STeem regulars.
After two weeks, HF20 is settling well. We have seen dramatically low number of spam comments, posts and transactions that can only bring goodies to STEEM. However, how hard it will hit the new Steemitian who want to succeed has to be seen. It is not easy to buy few STEEMs if you are living in developing countries due to lack of infrastructure. Moreover, newbies need to trial before they commit any investments. More time and experiments will lead to a sweet point for newcomers.
DApps are thinking of onboarding own their users. For example, 
Steemfest#3 is on around.
After all these news and upgrades, Market is still flat and little bit down for Steem. It also predict something dramatic will happen similar to 1st week of January, 2018. When BTC will return to bull market (e.g. above $10K), STEEM will explode based on SMT speculation because the pressure is building inside due to strong fundamentals.
Finally, all are set for SMTs. HF20 cleared the path for SMT development through scalability upgrade and resource de-allocation from STINC. Now STINC can totally focus on SMT development and keep-up with the promised schedule.
Cheers and keep steeming!
Cryptominer since 2013, occasional trader and tech blogger
Disclaimer: This opinion is not a financial advice, it my personal perspective and opinion. Please seek professionals for financial decisions.
Image sources: Most images are open sourced (e.g. Pixabay, Wikimedia etc.) with Creative common license. Some images are used with due courtesy to respected owners.