Steady upwards hasn't happened before in Bitcoin (not for long periods of time at least) I think the two bubbles theory is the best one.
We have had one of the biggest bear markets In Bitcoin history while growth has increased all that time and media attention and adoption by both persons as well as banks and merchants, on top of the soon to come halving. Even with a bubble we would still be undervalued, especially since after the bubble pops we'd not be much higher than we are now. So a pre-bubble that seems to crash but than soon starts a real bubble seems most likely. And 10,000 seems like the lower limit for it.