Written by: Maria, Electric Capital
Compiled by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
The sixth annual ElectricCapital developer report has seen participation from 829 individuals, analyzing a record 902 million code submissions across 1.7 million code repositories.
How does the data performance of the crypto industry look in 2024?
Key takeaways:
The crypto industry is global, and developer momentum has shifted from North America to other regions.
Developers and use cases are diversifying across different ecosystems.
Applications cover all time zones, indicating widespread usage globally.
We have underestimated the number of developers in the crypto space because our statistics only focus on open-source development activity.
Our methodology includes:
Consolidate developer profiles into a single standard identity.
Identify and exclude bot accounts.
Remove code repositories that do not reflect development activity, such as data listings.
Since Ethereum's launch in 2015, the crypto industry has grown at an annual rate of 39%. In 2015, the number of monthly active developers was around 1,000. Today: the number of monthly active developers has increased to 23,613.
Over the past year, the number of monthly active developers has slightly decreased by 7%.
However, the number of developers working in the crypto industry for more than two years has increased by 27%.
These experienced developers are driving the industry's growth, as they contribute 70% of the code submission volume.
How has the crypto industry changed since 2015? Let's take a look at the global diversity of crypto developers.
The focus of developer distribution has shifted from the USA and Europe, which accounted for 82%, to other regions of the world.
Asia now has the highest share of developers among continents, with one in every three crypto developers residing there. Europe ranks second. North America has dropped from first to third place since 2015.
We can identify the top ecosystems on these continents by the share of developers.
By developer share, Ethereum ranks first as the ecosystem in every major continental block.
Solana ranks second.
Polygon ranks third in Asia and South America.
Polkadot ranks third in Europe.
Base ranks third in North America.
Dfinity ranks third in Africa.
The USA, India, the UK, China, and Canada hold the largest share of global crypto developers.
The United States remains the country with the highest proportion of crypto developers, but it has been declining since 2015. India has risen from 10th to 2nd place.
The top three ecosystems by developer share calculated by country:
Ethereum ranks first in the USA, UK, China, and Canada, and second in India.
Solana ranks first in India and second elsewhere.
Base ranks third in the USA and India.
Polygon ranks third in the UK.
NEAR Protocol ranks third in Canada.
Polkadot ranks third in China.
India welcomed the most new crypto developers in 2024. 17% of new crypto developers are from India.
Let's focus on new developers—39,148 new developers explored the crypto space in 2024. We can break down these new developers by ecosystem.
Solana became the ecosystem with the highest number of new monthly developers in July 2024.
Overall situation of new developers in 2024: Solana has the most new developers, ranking first.
Ethereum ranks second. Dfinity, Aptos, Base, Bitcoin, SuiNetwork, NEAR Protocol, Polkadot, Polygon, and Starknet all have over 1,000 new developers joining.
Arbitrum, BNBCHAIN, Optimism, StellarOrg, and ton_blockchain have all welcomed over 500 new developers.
Who is experiencing the fastest growth in total developers? The total number of developers reflects the interest of new developers and hackathon participants.
According to data from Q3 2023 and Q4 2024, the ten ecosystems with the fastest growth in total developers are:
Who has seen the fastest growth in full-time developers? Full-time developers submit code for more than 10 days each month, contributing steady work to the ecosystem.
According to data from Q3 2023 and Q4 2024, the top ten ecosystems with the fastest growth in full-time developers are:
Many developers are active across multiple chains—now, one in every three crypto developers works across multiple chains, and this trend is continuously growing. The share of monthly active multi-chain developers has increased from less than 10% in 2015 to 34% in 2024.
The chains with the most multi-chain developers share developer resources with Ethereum.
EVM chains share the most developers and have significant network effects: 74% of multi-chain developers work on EVM chains.
Since 2021, the share of EVM cross-chain deployers has quadrupled.
Base is the most popular chain for EVM multi-chain deployers in 2024, but Base deployers tend to stay on the Base chain.
Since deployers publish code to multiple chains, where is most of the original code written?
Before 2020, nearly all original on-chain code logic on EVM was on Ethereum.
Currently, no EVM chain's share of code innovation exceeds 30%.
Base now accounts for 25% of original on-chain code logic across all EVM chains, the most among all major EVM chains.
This is how the Ethereum ecosystem maintains its leading position in code innovation—through L2 chains. 65% of innovation occurs on the mainnet and ETH L2 chains.
The Ethereum ecosystem demonstrates strong network effects through its dominance in EVM and multi-chain developers. How is this ecosystem performing?
Ethereum's monthly active developers number 6,244, a year-on-year decrease of 17%.
Most of the losses stem from developers who joined after 2021. Among developers who have worked on Ethereum, those with over 2 years of experience have increased by 21%.
Now, over half of Ethereum developers work on Ethereum L2 chains, up from 25% in 2022.
Ethereum L2 chains have experienced significant growth in developers over the past 4 years. The total number of monthly active developers on Ethereum L2 chains is 3,592, with an average annual growth of 67% since Arbitrum's launch in 2021.
Base is the largest Ethereum L2 chain.
Arbitrum, Starknet, and Optimism each have over 2,000 developers in 2024.
In 2024, Bitcoin's monthly active developers number 1,200, remaining stable. The number of experienced Bitcoin developers (those working on Bitcoin development for over 2 years) is steadily increasing. Currently, the number of monthly active experienced Bitcoin developers has reached 672, setting a new record.
42% of Bitcoin developers—almost half—are working on Bitcoin scalability solutions.
Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) are a developer-centric, research-originated field. How is its development?
Over 2,000 monthly active developers work in the ZK ecosystem, with 823 being full-time developers who submit code for more than 10 days each month.
The on-chain deployment of zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) has increased from 40 in 2020 to 639 in 2024.
Although the numbers remain relatively flat, they show clear growth. The number of deployers has also increased.
ZK is also gaining usage—contracts using ZK precompiles have increased from 47 in 2020 to 680 this year.
When are zero-knowledge proof (ZK) developers and users active?
Deployers of ZK Rollup contracts are active during working hours in the eastern hemisphere, as are ZK users.
ZK users and deployers seem to be concentrated in the eastern hemisphere, particularly in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.
NFT and DeFi are established application scenarios in the crypto space—most top smart contracts are related to either NFTs or DeFi. How are these application scenarios evolving? Let's start with NFTs.
Deployment of NFTs across all major active chains (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Zora, Base) has grown more than threefold year-on-year.
NFT deployments have reached an all-time high. 87% of new deployments occurred on Base and Zora.
NFT activity has significantly shifted towards minting.
In 2024, NFT minting reached an all-time high, with 97% of minting occurring on Base.
Solana has 57% of minting wallets, capturing 64% of minting transactions.
The increase in minting activity is due to NFTs surpassing the art field in 2024, encompassing more application scenarios.
NFT trading remains an important foundational application, and has expanded from OpenSea to platforms such as Magic Eden and Tensor.
The transaction volume for NFT minting and trading peaked in different regions—indicating different user groups.
3,532 monthly active developers are engaged in DeFi development. DeFi developers are experienced—2,097 of them (59%) have been working in DeFi for over 2 years.
53% of DeFi developers work on Ethereum and its L2 chains.
In 2024, the total value locked (TVL) in DeFi grew by 89%.
Ethereum's TVL dominates, being 7 times that of the second largest chain.
The majority of TVL has consistently been concentrated in Ethereum.
Non-Ethereum TVL has grown from 3% to 36% in 3 years.
The largest leap in TVL share occurred in Solana.
What is driving all this growth in TVL? We can categorize DeFi developers by type.
In the past year, restaking has grown to $29 billion in total value locked (TVL).
LRTs have grown to over 3.5 million ETH.
46% of LRTs are used in DeFi.
The majority of LRTs are deposited in money markets, yield, interest rate derivatives, and bridging platforms.
Eigenlayer has facilitated the creation of LRTs as a field. So, how is the developer ecosystem of Eigenlayer developing?
There are 252 monthly active developers working in the Eigenlayer ecosystem. The developers in Eigenlayer are highly engaged: 39% are full-time developers, and more than half have worked in this ecosystem for over 2 years.
In 2024, DEX trading volume nearly doubled, reaching $209 billion monthly.
Solana and Ethereum settled the most transaction volume—over 2 times that of the second largest chain.
Solana settled the most transaction volume in 2024, reaching $574 billion. The total DEX transaction volume for the Ethereum mainnet and its L2 chains is $931 billion.
Solana dominated the low-fee DEX application scenario. In 2024, its trading volume more than tripled, reaching 646 million transactions in a single month.
81% of DEX transactions come from Solana.
In terms of the number of trading wallets, excluding wallets with only 1 transaction and an amount less than $1, Solana has the most independent trading wallets, which is 7 times that of the second largest chain.
Base has the second most independent trading wallets, excluding Solana.
Base and Solana are very popular for small transfers. The average transaction amount for wallets on these chains is the smallest.
Ethereum is the most favored for high-value transfers. The average transaction amount for wallets on Ethereum is the largest.
Where are all these DEX users? We can understand the usage of DeFi through DEX, as financial activity often starts or ends with DEX.
Global activity is distributed differently across chains—more evenly distributed activity indicates more global usage. Ethereum and Solana have the most evenly distributed usage.
Stablecoins are one of the largest crypto application scenarios globally. How are stablecoins performing? The usage of stablecoins has reached an all-time high: the total amount of stablecoins in circulation is $196 billion, with a daily trading volume of $81 billion—both of which are historical highs.
USDC and USDT account for 95% of transaction volume.
Ethereum is the first ecosystem for stablecoins—59% of stablecoins are issued on Ethereum.
What is the global activity status of stablecoins?
Stablecoins have always been active, but trading volume increased by 2-3% during working hours in Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Although stablecoin trading peaks during working hours in the eastern hemisphere, trading volume tends to favor the western hemisphere.
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs launched this year, providing a convenient way for off-chain capital to enter on-chain assets. The Bitcoin ETF attracted over $50 billion in net inflow, becoming one of the most successful ETFs in history.
Most of the trading volume for Bitcoin ETFs comes from retail investors.
Although Bitcoin ETFs are still in the early stages, institutional investors are purchasing spot Bitcoin ETFs at a record pace.
The Ethereum ETF launched in July this year. Currently, the assets under management (AUM) of the Ethereum ETF are $13 billion, attracting $3.5 billion in net inflow. This performance is comparable to the most successful ETF launches since 2022 (excluding Bitcoin ETFs) and is mainly driven by retail investors.
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have set historical records. In their first year, cumulative inflows have surpassed those of the most successful ETFs in history by more than double.
