I have written threads about the specifics of the model how these can be calculated. Instead of referring to those, I try to write it again in less formal but more understandable way.

1. Number of coins (XMR) is known, 12,700,000.

2. There is a largest holding. We don't know how large it is but my belief is more than 500,000 and less than 5,000,000 XMR. I am assuming 1,000,000 in the beginning of the deduction.

3. There is the smallest holding that matters. Anything below that is considered dust, and its owners don't count. Let us use 1 XMR because it's a round figure. Usually I prefer about $2 worth.

The above is true because it just is. So how can we know anything about how the coins are owned by people?

The answer is statistical probability. The number of coins each owner has, is a random variable. Therefore, the probability of someone owning 231 XMR (or: any number between 231-231.999999999999) has to be very near the probability of someone owning 232 XMR (or: any number between 232-232.999999999999). Or if not, there needs to be a valid explanation.

Another rule is called power law, and it says that the top end of many statistical phenomena, tends to behave so that if the largest value is 1, the second, third, etc. largest values are close to 1/2, 1/3, etc (or: the set [1; 1/2; 1/3; ...] is a good fit to the set of actual values).

Therefore, with the initial guess that the largest owner has 1,000,000 XMR, we can first construct the power law "elite" of 1,000 owners who own anything between 1,000 XMR (1,000th richest) and 1,000,000 XMR (1st richest). In total, the 1,000 largest owners have 7,500,000 XMR.

This answers your question. The reason there are surprisingly little people who fulfil "owns at least X XMR" is that to satisfy statistical continuity, there has to be people owning 2x that amount, and the number of those people tends to be 1/2x the number owning the smaller amount, and this goes all the way until the largest holding.

So the TOP-1000 who have 1,000 XMR or more, collectively own 7,500,000 XMR. The rest, with smaller holdings, are much more in number, but altogether own only 5,200,000 XMR.

There is a scenario universe for the possible assumptions. It is possible to decide sigma levels and make a more complicated multi-scenario calculation. But it does not really matter.

There is about the same number of XMR as there is BTC, both in circulation, and in total.

So this answers all your questions:

Holding 5000 XMR is like holding 5000 BTC. If it does not feel good enough, then it's too little.

There are about as many people holding 10k or 5k, as there are people holding 10000 or 5000 BTC. I can also tell the number, after practicing quite a lot of this in my youth: about 100 people have 10k or more, 150-200 people have 5k or more.

Well now we have hit 0.0075 I wish I could say the same, as I have sold more than I wish I had (with hindsight).

I set up ladders of sells and buys as I have done since it first opened on Polo and I have stuck to prioritising accumulation while passively range trading constantly to average down my price per coin overall.  I wanted to maintain a 0.1% of supply holding, but tonight with it smashing many of my upper rungs so fast, I am below target by an amount I will struggle to claw back.  Of course I can't complain, although I just wish I could get BTC out of Polo quicker than the minimum limits allow.

It's been a fantastic 24 hours for those of us in in for the long term though....

And shame about the trains, we're a stuffy lot sometimes, a little exuberance is occasionally warranted IMHO.

i know ...  soft spot in my heart for doge ... 25 satos?
Resistance 250 satos?

it's a little too soon to cheer and call the moon because of this rise but it is very good to see price slowly rising up back to ~$700 and with the halving around the corner there will be all kinds of hype and excitement for bitcoin very soon.

Not the right question.  You mean - will the buying power of one BTC equal the buying power of 50k USD today?  Who cares if BTC is 50k if a can of coke costs $3,000...

This thread has attempted to determine the distribution of bitcoins by person: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=316297.0