Perhaps I can explain
why we believe that Monero is the only thing that matters.
James,
Total XMR is 3,255,000
We believe that there is nobody who owns 200,000 or more. If there is, he is an outsider who does not disclose about it. The ones who are interested and have the means to buy such a number theoretically, have been assigned a lower number and many of them are confirmed.
The number of people who own roughly 50,000 or more is about 7 that we know, and - since this is reasonably easy to pull off without noticing - maybe some we don't know.
The number owning 25-50k is likely about as many as 50k+. (According to power law, it should be).
So I have good and bad news for you. Good news is: you can quickly become one of the largest holders of Monero. Bad news is: from influence standpoint it does not matter. I am also a large owner, but my feeble efforts to influence the market have not resulted in monetary gain. There is just too many smart, individual holders out there, in pursuit of trading the market, accumulating, or diversifying, that it does not work.
This is the reason I have singled Monero out from all coins out there. The distribution of coins has been attained by the atypical launch, where the original dev was ousted after only a few days. The new team has 7 people. This distributed "their" coins greatly, compared to one dev. The early problems with preferential mining are a fact, but the damage has been quantified, and the largest "villain", dga, has walked away with the money ($150k) and the moneros have been distributed by the exchange. The devs have bought their coins in the exchange.
Monero has been listed in an exchange since 3.1% of the total issuance was mined, and immediately commanded a high price, leading to high difficulty, encouraging (even forcing) miners to sell, and shuffling the coins to many hands. The distribution statistic shows a healthy spike of BTC whales who believe the coin. This (large number of Hero members and whales, owning moderate stashes) is a phenomenon only applicable to Monero, afaik. In total, the volume in the most voluminous exchange, during Monero's existence, has been 6,300,000 XMR, about double the number of coins now existing, and 4 times the average number during that time. Again not found in any other coin.
These are the reasons I like and own Monero, and I fully believe you will make a wise decision in buying some for your portfolio investment, as we believe that a good groundwork will soon be rewarded with a hefty price increase. (Hefty price increase cannot amend bad groundwork, however).
Risto