Originally Posted by
boost
I think a ton of it is speculative retail investors. BTC, I'd guess is most coin buyer's first coin. So Elon tweets, or some positive story is published that reaches a new audience, or whatever, and you get a new influx. But then people realize they may have missed out on the biggest multiples, and that there are other coins, some of which may be the 2011 BTC of today, and then hop on those and out of or partially out of BTC.
I don't have some well analyzed data to support it, but when I happen to pay attention around a bull run spurred on by a company buying a bunch, Elon tweeting, etc, it seems pretty consistent that ETH tracks BTC with a bit of a delay. BTC has the biggest brand, but once you get in the door, if you look around a bit ETH has an insane amount of promise.
So, yeah, in short, I think it's mainly retail driven, and publicity causes bull runs, people try to time them, which eventually cause bear slides, but some number of crypto converts stick around through the bear slide, causing a rocky, but overall upward trend.
With growing corporate buy in, an increased participation from retail, and eventually institutional buy in, the variance will subside.