Genetic studies published in the early twenty-first century found two genetically distinct coconut populations and proposed two independent domestication events; other researchers read the same and later genomic data as consistent with a single origin later dispersed by Austronesian voyaging, and the debate has not settled.
What would resolve this A broader, better-sampled ancient-DNA study across Indian Ocean and Pacific coconut populations, dated against the archaeological record of Austronesian and Indian Ocean seafaring, would let botanists distinguish shared ancestry from independent domestication.
OpenBotany and archaeobotanyCoconut (Wikipedia)