The only way the rate is going to go up is if merchants begin accepting Latium, and people quit giving it away on the exchanges.

Who's going to exchange coin for a currency that isn't accepted anywhere? I could give you $100 worth of dirt, and I bet you couldn't buy a darn thing with it. Same problem Latium is facing right now, the ONLY place you can do anything with it is on the exchanges, and people are exchanging the coin cheap.

Once people stop giving it away on exchanges, and start accepting it for goods/services, it will be seen as a viable currency. Until then, it's yet another alt currency that may or may not survive.