Does anything changed or happened today to justify this bull rise?
I believe the FUD concerning BTC has brought money to LTC, as well as the growing understanding that most of the altcoins today have very little future. Does anyone honestly believe a coin named after an internet meme will be taken seriously in the next few years? A coin like litecoin however not only sounds professional and resembles the biggest cryptocurrency in the world (bitcoin), it also is technologically better than most coins today. LTC not only can become an adopted online currency used by millions, but it can also be used as a low risk investment for beginner investors who want to see occasional spikes which can give them some profit, but not give them the risk of low drops. I personally believe in LTC as much as i believe in BTC, and a 50$ LTC by the end of this year is very plausible, more plausible than a 2000$ BTC in my opinion. Don't forget that in order to have a 2K bitcoin, people need to buy a 1999 bitcoin. If people don't expect the price to rise, people won't buy. A 1000% increase for a 7$ coin (70$) is in most peoples eyes a far more plausible scenario than a 1000$ coin rising with 100% (2000$ coin).
I agree on you with that.
Also transaction times are very long with BTC, it took me approximately 3 hours to send and receive BTC. Don't think the transaction times will be shorter in the near future.