Ethereum Leads Global Blockchain Developer Growth
The Ethereum ecosystem welcomed more than 16,000 new developers between January and September, according to data from Electric Capital, shared by the Ethereum Foundation. This surge solidifies Ethereum’s position as the largest developer community in the blockchain industry, with a total of 31,869 active developers.
Trailing behind, Solana attracted 11,500 developers, while Bitcoin gained around 7,500 new developers over the same period. Despite these impressive numbers, the Solana Foundation stated that the dataset “may be outdated,” suggesting the actual figures could be higher.
Ethereum Ecosystem Dominance Continues
The data accounts for Ethereum’s entire ecosystem, including layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Unichain, and others listed by L2Beat, ensuring developers working across multiple layers are not double-counted.
In contrast, Solana’s two-year growth trend is remarkable, with its full-time developer count up 29.1% year-over-year and 61.7% over the past two years, according to Electric Capital’s tracker. Ethereum’s full-time developer growth was slower — 5.8% in the past year and 6.3% over two years — but its ecosystem remains the most robust and mature.
Disputed Data and Missing Developers
Jacob Creech, Solana Foundation’s Head of Developer Relations, argued that the current report undercounts around 7,800 Solana developers due to missing GitHub repositories. He encouraged developers to submit their repositories for accurate tracking.
Meanwhile, Tomasz K. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind, questioned the methodology behind the data, stating, “EVM chains should be grouped together. Developers on Polygon and BNB can reuse most EVM tooling and skills.”
Some analysts believe AI-assisted coding and temporary hackathon projects may be exaggerating the figures. Jarrod Watts, Head of Australia at Abstract, noted, “This data likely includes a ton of vibe coding slop and hackathon repos that are never touched again. I don’t think I can name one new crypto dev that started this year.”
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves risk and may result in financial loss.