Probably because of new partnership announcements and and a protocol upgrade, Dash hit a record high $584 on Bitfinex.
This is a 70% increase since only November 12th, 2017! On Nov 12, Dash was only trading for $346.
Is Dash Two-Tier Network really better than Bitcoin's One-Tier Network?
Almost 50% of Dash's value is on the South Korea's exchange Bithumb.
A surge in the price might be because Dash Core was launched which increased the block size to 2 MB. Also, transaction fees were lowered and private transactions were made more efficient.
KuvaCash was also launched which will try to promote dash adoption in Zimbabwe. Due to the corruption and high inflation in Zimbabwe (and the coup that's in progress), many citizens have turned to bitcoin just like in Venezuela.
With bitcoin's very costly transactions, KuvaCash might just take off for day to day transactions.
KuvaCash is backed by $550,000 in funding from Dash itself.
One of the goals of KuvaCash is to assist Zimbabweans in moving seamlessly between USD and Dash using a phone-number based cryptocurrency payment service.
Source:
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/dash-price-surges-to-all-time-high-near-600/