XMR now poses a prisoners dilemma to BTC whales. They must now build a position to sufficiently hedge against XMR becoming a coin with an economy rivaling BTC.
Unfortunately for them XMR holders will not let go of their coins so easily. The distribution is very fair compared to many coins and the whales like Risto, Warz and Smoothie have no need to relinquish their XMR positions given their BTC wealth.
The hands are definitely gripping tighter this time around.