Interestingly BTC-e is still online, there have been no rollbacks and everything seems to be in order. Even the price is holding well and still going up a bit. This only leaves one real explanation: That was, indeed, real buying pressure and no panic buying, in order to get FIAT out of the exchange by converting it to BTC!
BTC-E is indeed still online. Is that so weird? It was just a fun pump, or some whale traders knowing something we don't.
BTC-E as exchange with the highest price. That's not something we have seen a lot before