Shiba Inu Transaction Activity Plunges 95% After Record Daily Surge

Shiba Inu has recorded an unusual on-chain anomaly after its daily transaction count plunged by 95% within 24 hours.

According to data from CryptoQuant, Shiba Inu’s daily transaction count soared to 78,558 on July 6—its highest level since October—before tumbling to 3,922 the following day. At press time, the metric had recovered slightly to 4,184 transactions. Even so, it remains 94.67% below the July 6 peak.

Despite the sharp fluctuation in network activity, SHIB’s price remained relatively stable throughout the period, indicating that the surge had little or no direct impact on the broader market. 

Potential Reason Behind Sudden Surge 

Initially, the spike resembled the type of large-scale wallet reorganization that cryptocurrency exchanges occasionally perform when transferring funds to cold storage.

However, data from the blockchain analytics platform Arkham showed no notable exchange inflows or outflows during the period. This effectively ruled out exchange wallet management as the source of the unusual activity.

Since Arkham tracks total transfer volumes, any major exchange movements would have appeared on its liquidity charts. Instead, exchange-related activity remained largely unchanged.

The lack of price volatility, coupled with the abrupt 95% drop in transactions, suggests the spike resulted from automated, non-market activity rather than retail trading.

As a result, analysts believe the anomaly was likely caused by either a large SHIB holder redistributing tokens across private wallets or developers conducting automated tests involving smart contracts or blockchain infrastructure. 

A Similar Trend? 

The unusual transaction activity comes as Shiba Inu’s on-chain address count continues to expand.

Notably, Shiba Inu has added more than 1,700 addresses since the beginning of July, pushing the total above 1.6 million. At press time, SHIB’s address count stood at 1,675,798 (1.67 million).

Recently, WoofSwap, a Shibarium-based decentralized exchange (DEX), disclosed that it was responsible for much of the recent address growth. The DEX used a smart contract to generate multiple wallet addresses and transferred 1 SHIB to each in an effort to increase the number of on-chain holders.

The disclosure quickly sparked controversy within the Shiba Inu community, with some supporters accusing WoofSwap of artificially inflating holder statistics as a marketing strategy for its token.

In response to the criticism, WoofSwap said it would discontinue the practice and explore alternative marketing initiatives that provide greater value to the SHIB ecosystem.

At press time, Shiba Inu traded at $0.00000429, up 1.54% over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, its daily trading volume declined 8.46% to $67.61 million, reflecting relatively muted trading activity despite the recent on-chain anomaly.