It is definitely a chicken and egg story. The $7 price created more excitement bringing in more users trying to collect the juicy profits. The question is what will bring more user activity without being associated with the price rise.
Some good initiatives are currently running like stemhackathon (first one is closed... hopefully more coming), theycallmedan posh stuff and abh12345 encouraging SEO optimized posts to get more eyes from search engines.
Chicken and an egg indeed :)
Trying to bring real users in crypto is not as easy at this point imo. Projects with a big investors behind the are struggling as well. Hive can have the network effect on a social media platform and grow....