I disagree with the 'minority' concept. It seems like many big players jumped on ETC once it launched at Poloniex , buying thousands of ETC around 0.001. This triggers the chain reaction of pumps.

While the idea got started by a small minority, making it tradable on all major exchanges evolved it to be a top trading coin at this point.

I have to admit i've bought 19BTC worth of ETC myself when it got listed on Poloniex.