It could still very well be a market manipulation from whales to pump up the price and dump at a much higher price.
Small coins or those with lower market caps are very susceptible to manipulations from whales and shills which can significantly affect the price
My best guess is that it has to do with some technical analysis that causes whales to start buying and this is causing some chain reaction
Technical analysis is a reading strategy, but it is also dependent on the fundamentals of that project. No trader would expect a relatively unknown currency to grow in price just because.