UBQ price is going up because ETH price is skyrocketing. If you were mining UBQ to fill your bags, it now makes more sense to mine ETH and buy UBQ, hence the price increase. The price will most likely continue to rise until there exists a mining equality. EXP is rising too for this reason. Confidence in ETH translates directly into confidence in ETH forks.
That's an interesting take on things, I like it

It doesn't hurt that the first token is already on-chain and going smoothly either, IMO. I think people were just waiting "for the dust to settle" after initial launch. The price fell a bit and people got more confident and started buying.