A recent study by Electric Capital reveals that the proportion of crypto developers in the United States (US) has declined significantly over the past decade.
While the US still leads the world in the proportion of crypto developers, this position could be lost if policies that encourage the development of the industry are not strengthened.
What explains the exodus of crypto developers?
Electric Capital's study analyzed a sample of more than 110,000 developers worldwide. According to the survey, the top three countries in terms of developer share are the United States, India and the United Kingdom, with rates of 18.8%, 11.8% and 4.2%, respectively.
Crypto Developer Shares by Top 5 Countries. Source: Electric Capital.
However, the proportion from the US has fallen by 51% in almost ten years. This means that 81% of crypto developers now live outside the US, shaping the future of the crypto market. Maria Shen, general partner at Electric Capital, questions whether this is a result of a negative regulatory environment.
Is this the result of a negative regulatory environment? The US needs a clear crypto policy to maintain its leadership in the country… Crypto considers itself based in CA and NY – but 64% of devs live outside of these traditional tech hubs! This is a job and wealth creation opportunity for policymakers. Crypto should be non-partisan – devs live in every state, representing every political background, Shen commented.
Crypto Developer Share by Continent. Source: Electric Capital.
Furthermore, the study’s results show a clear shift in the proportion of crypto developers in Asia and North America. While the proportion in Asia has increased from 13% to 32% since 2015, the proportion in North America has decreased from 44% to 24%.
These research findings come against the backdrop of a significant decline in developer activity across the market over the past two years. Data from Artemis shows that the number of weekly commits has fallen by 50% over the past year.
Weekly Commits and Weekly Active Developers. Source: Artemis
Additionally, the number of active developers on a weekly basis has decreased from over 13,000 to around 6,800, a drop of approximately 50%. A paradox arises here: the number of tokens continues to increase while developer activity decreases.
The article 81% of crypto developers are based outside the US was first seen on BeInCrypto Brasil.