This is also my belief. There is a very low quantity of circulating Bitcoin. If you can create FOMO and generate an order book full of buyers wanting your crapcoin, you then wait for the right moment then dump en-masse generating a large quantity of Bitcoin for yourself and a large number of successful traders. I notice that the more reputable alts are not pumping as hard as the blatant scams.
You hit at the same general idea of a post I was thinking of writing earlier.
For rich people heading their own digital token they typically have a premine to start. An unfair edge. Then they can further buy tokens off the market and accumulate from users. With these huge bags they can begin raising the price buying less % of max than already aquired, all the while their held coins multiply in supposed value... But this value is merely an illusion because the market is cornered. Now that the price action has enticed investors/speculators the mastermind must begin offloading his bags slowly as to not crash the price.
If the price ever falls below a predetermined threshold he can just cut and run, knowing full well that he is safe by virtue of holding so many coins from such low price. This is the crux of how coins are pulling these valuations.
Don't forget Evan Duffield's sins or the Fact that the founder of Ripple sold Mt. gox before notifying the buyer via email that 80,000 btc were "lost".