The number of wallets holding Shiba Inu has topped 1.67 million, but a growing dispute is focusing on whether a recent surge in addresses reflects an expansion of real users.

Blockchain outlet Decrypt reported on July 7 that SHIB holding addresses have risen by more than 75,000 since July 4 to reach 1,675,551.

Community figure The Dark Shib said the increase did not come from new investors but from an automated distribution mechanism. He said a verified smart contract created by decentralised exchange WoofSwap, called “TheShibbull”, generates new Ethereum addresses and sends small amounts of SHIB, which tracking platforms then count as holder wallets.

He said the contract uses blockchain data such as block hashes to create random addresses and distributes at least 1 SHIB to hundreds of wallets per transaction. That, he said, causes addresses that did not buy SHIB directly or take part in ecosystem activity to be counted as holders. The Dark Shib said wallet counts alone cannot accurately judge broader adoption.

The Dark Shib also cited as an issue that the contract owner can adjust distribution amounts or withdraw tokens within the contract. He also raised the possibility that WoofSwap publicised the SHIB holder milestone while simultaneously highlighting the related token RYOSHI, potentially using the increase for marketing.

WoofSwap denied the claims. WoofSwap said “TheShibbull” is not a tool to mislead investors but a light experiment for the community. It also said that even if 1 SHIB is sent to randomly generated wallets, the tokens can be confirmed later if someone comes to control the address.

Even as the number of holder wallets rises, ownership remains concentrated in a small number of large wallets. Over the past 24 hours, SHIB holding addresses increased 0.002 percent, and 707 whale wallets on Etherscan account for only 0.04 percent of the total but hold 94.52 percent of SHIB, which has a market capitalisation of $2.55 billion.

Shark wallets numbered 2,861, or 0.17 percent of the total, holding 1.77 percent. Dolphin wallets totalled 29,833 addresses, or 1.78 percent, holding 1.89 percent. Fish wallets numbered 188,958, or 11.28 percent, but held 1.35 percent, while crab wallets numbered 479,350, or 28.61 percent, holding 0.41 percent. Shrimp wallets numbered 973,906, or 58.12 percent of the total, but held only 0.05 percent.