We definitely have some new blood entering SDC, And it looks like we have a few old/large holders not wanting to 'miss the top' and selling off. This is great, we are getting a months worth of distribution in a couple days. And what is happening is the markets are shifting away from "those looking to get out" into "those starting to get in".
This or someone playing with the market.
I'm very happy to finally see a move up, and it seems that its true that many people discovered SDC lately. Finger crossed, cause this is the best scenario...
I don't think its just manipulation, the sell-offs are happening on extremely thin volume. A manipulator would be unlikely to spend tens of BTC to eat sell walls, only to loose that value by selling a few thousand sdc at the bottom of the spread and allowing more day traders to piggy back small sells that need to be chewed through again.
I would say it looks like one or a few good sized fish, setting some really juicy buy walls trying to fish for someone cashing/out. But they are aggressively trying to enter. So when they quit buying, the market hangs for an hour (or less) and traders start to panic and sell downward quick. Then new fish start buying up again, trying to play just off the bottom of the spread. If they had weeks to enter the market I think they would be trying to pay less for the coins, but it looks to me like they are trying to get in quick. Just not so quick as to pay to much of a premium when they can save a few thousand satoshis by waiting a few hours.