The meme-inspired cryptocurrency Shiba Inu ($SHIB) has kept on seeing its holder count grow even during the ongoing bear market, to the point now over 1.2 million Ethereum addresses hold SHIB, up from around one million eight months ago.

Back in November of last year, the meme-inspired cryptocurrency saw its number of holders move past the 1 million mark even as its price started dropping from a bull market that saw it outperform numerous other assets as its community grew.

Its new milestone past the 1.2 million holder markets comes as the on-chain transactions volume for SHIB dropped to a 15-month low. In April 2022, there were around 213,000 SHIB transactions recorded on-chain, down from an all-time high of 1.38 million in October last year, as CryptoGlobe reported. That figure has, in June, dropped to 157,889.

The transaction drop is in line with a wider cryptocurrency market downturn that has seen the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin post its worst quarterly performance in over a decade. In March 2021, SHIB saw a transaction volume of 37,000 on-chain, although according to CryptoCompare data, in March of last year, SHIB wasn’t a well-known token, and its popularity exploded throughout the year.

Etherscan data shows that despite the lower transaction volume, the number of wallets holding SHIB has kept on growing. As first reported by Gfinity Esports, the cryptocurrency has added around 863 new holders per day since it first hit 1 million, meaning that at its current pace it would hit 2 million holders in early 2025.

It’s worth noting that the number of addresses holding SHIB does not necessarily correspond to the cryptocurrency’s total user numbers, as anyone can create as many addresses as they want to. On the other hand, exchanges and other services custodying users’ funds gather the SHIB of many in a single address.

SHIB’s total holder numbers kept on growing even as its price remains muted. Over the past three months, the cryptocurrency is down over 60%, despite seeing a recovery over the past 30 days.

SHIBUSD Chart via TradingView

While Shiba Inu’s price has been steadily dropping, traders buying and selling the cryptocurrency on the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have been buying up more than they have been selling, with 92% of users trading SHIB buying, and only 8% selling.

As CryptoGlobe reported, SHIB, Polygon ($MATIC) and Unifi are the few altcoins that have been listed on Coinbase in 2021 and 2022 to remain above listing price as of June, according to an analysis conducted by a pseudonymous on-chain analyst.

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