Can't seem to find anything that makes it stands out or unique, compared to the other coins I have.
Ethereum classic is the same Ethereum that was a couple of years ago. He goes the same way and can repeat his success, at least in theory. This coin has all the advantages of Ethereum and it has a future.
There're certain differences between eth and etc. Firstly, eth has big support and dev team, whereas etc has a weaker team. Secondly, ethereum is now harder to mine and it will eventually turn to the proof of stake system. As far as I know, there are no such plans for ethereum classic. I think the latter has chances of going up only when eth becomes unmineable, since it would be the easiest solution for miners to just turn to this coin.
As for a small pump - maybe it's due to their wallets introduced as well as the 'new monetary policy': "The new monetary policy bounds the supply of ETC" (article:
https://medium.com/@cseberino/calculating-ethereum-classic-mining-rewards-with-the-new-monetary-policy-9a1eccdfeb4c).