RE: $STEEM/BTC Poloniex+Bittrex Technical Analysis / Market Report Update #219, May. 24 2017.
A little bit of both, but Austrian economics tells us that price discovery is always in a sense a matter of speculation. It is based on many different valuations, that ultimately end up driving the price.
To answer you more specifically, I think it is opportunistic in the sense of looking to make a buck. Intrinsic value doesn't actually exist, but it's the human element that gives it value to human beings.
What use either Bitcoin or Steem will end up being in the very end, that is unknown to us. And in the very very end, it is likely to be replaced by something else. Therefore I would have to say that a lot of what we are seeing right now is short term speculation driven by crowd psychology, but wether this makes any price "too high" or "too low" there's no way to know.