The report from Bit investment firm Electric Capital shows that the number of developers in the global cryptocurrency field decreased slightly by 7% in 2024, but the proportion of senior developers increased. Meanwhile, the Solana Bit ecosystem was the most popular among new developers, with a 83% increase in Solana developers compared to a year ago, although the Ethereum ecosystem still maintains a leading position in total numbers.
Total number of crypto developers decreases, but proportion of senior developers increases
According to the report released by Electric Capital on Thursday, the total number of cryptocurrency developers remained relatively stable in 2024, although some recent entrants have left the industry, but most senior developers have chosen to stay.
The report points out that the number of monthly active cryptocurrency developers worldwide decreased from 25,419 in November last year to 23,613 last month, a slight decrease of 7%. Among them, the proportion of senior developers has increased, with the number of developers who have been working in cryptocurrency for more than 2 years growing by 27%, and 70% of the code submissions coming from these developers. Among those who have left the industry, the majority are relatively new developers.
The stability of the developer population is a positive signal, as Electric Capital partner Maria Shen said in an interview with CoinDesk:
"We're seeing the experienced developer community growing, and the growth looks very healthy. When we look at full-time developers... the decline is minimal, very small, only a 4% year-over-year decline."
Solana developers see strong growth, Ethereum still dominates
Meanwhile, the Solana Bit ecosystem was the most popular among new developers, with an 83% increase in Solana ecosystem developers compared to a year ago. In July this year, Solana became the first community to surpass Ethereum in new developer numbers since 2016, attracting 7,625 new developers in 2024, about 1,169 more than Ethereum.
This result highlights the challenges facing Ethereum, as competitors like Solana's low fees and faster transaction speeds are attracting investment and talent.
However, the Ethereum ecosystem still maintains a leading position in total numbers. Shen said, "Ethereum absolutely dominates, Ethereum has a very deep network effect, and the data shows that."
The number of monthly active Ethereum developers has decreased by 17% over the past year, down to 6,244, but Shen said that so far, the Bit chain still has the largest developer ecosystem.
"Ethereum dominates the overall developer population across the world and continents, and Solana is currently ranked second."
The growth in Ethereum developers is mainly attributed to the rise of many Ethereum Layer 2 networks, including Base, Optimism and Arbitrum, which have attracted many developers, with Base seeing the largest increase. Electric Capital's data shows that slightly more than half (56%) of Ethereum developers are researching Layer 2 networks.
In addition, the Ethereum re-staking protocol Eigenlayer has driven a wave of large-scale development innovation in its ecosystem, with many protocols deploying their Actively Validated Services (AVS) in the ecosystem. Electric's report shows that Eigenlayer is the fastest growing developer ecosystem in 2024, with the number of monthly active developers growing by 167% overall.
In the Bit network, the number of developers has not changed significantly this year, with the number of senior developers growing steadily. In addition, 42% of Bit developers are researching Bit scaling solutions.
