According to them,
Ethereum Classic is not a clone of Ethereum™, but a continuation of the original Ethereum launched in 2015, which The Ethereum Foundation forked away from by launching a new protocol one year later in 2016.
Applications on Ethereum Classic have been operating uninterrupted for a year longer than on Ethereum™, making ETC the longest running and most reliable Smart Contract Platform. More importantly, Ethereum Classic has never and will never stop or interfere with Smart Contracts deployed to it, as unstoppability is what makes blockchains useful and valuable.
Unlike Ethereum™, on Classic, Code is Law. This means that "applications run exactly as programmed without downtime, censorship or third party interference". Ethereum Classic has evolved its ability to deliver on this promise by maxing-out the characteristics that yield decentralization, unstoppability, and censorship resistance against strong external forces. It is the only major Smart Contract Platform that has proven its ability to uphold this promise.
Source: Why Ethereum Classic?
The question is:
Could this really be a pump and dump scheme? I see a perspective in their description.