looking over the graphs, I have a gut feeling the price without speculators would be around this figure of $17 -$19, because while the price is going steadily up, the transaction rate isn't. The market isn't getting busier, especially when you take the popular IP addresses out of the equation.
On that basis, there isn't any practical reason for the sudden price rise, except for speculation.
Truth.
I think we can accept that nobody knows. From my perspective it's foolish to say that the rally was pure speculation.