Hmm, only $3 more growth for ETH (+53%) and it reaches 1/10th of Bitcoins market capitalization and there doesn't seem to be any serious dumps comming...

ethereum confuses me...unless it is billing itself the 'anti-bitcoin' among newbies/corp types..then I guess it makes some kinda sense ...bringing new folk/money into crypto
but essentially don't get it ...to me looks like a pump (maybe new players being drawn into crypto on the FOMO principle) but again
even say if ethereum as a coin has some good ideas ...what is to stop btc (or ltc) from that manner of their devs just saying 'cool' and upsurging
those ideas and incorporate them into their bigger network and market cap? (stealing ideas is the human way to punch up a product/idea)
again unless all the traction for ethereum is to 'stop' the evil bitcoin from masses of folk that believe the gov't/press/banker/ FUD on such
You make a lot of good points, Searing, to explain some of this attention to Ethereum.
I agree with your overall points including your assertion that Ethereum appears mostly to have pump and dump indicators - furthermore, I can imagine some bigger institutional players (whether governmental or banks) considering that it could be in their financial and institutional interest to attempt to pump Ethereum or some other alt as a form of distraction and counter-information to bitcoin.
Either way, there could be a lot of money to be made from Ethereum in the coming days and weeks and possibly even months; however, one can never be certain when the pump is going to end exactly and then potentially contribute towards an ability to lose a lot, as well.