Electric Capital’s 2024 report shows a decline in overall crypto developers despite an influx of new entrants, with Asia surpassing North America in developer share and established developers driving long-term growth.
The Crypto Developer Landscape Shifts: Asia Takes the Lead, India Surges
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Established Crypto Developers Reach All-Time High
According to Electric Capital’s 2024 developer report, 39,148 new developers explored crypto between January and November this year. However, the overall number of developers working on crypto declined by 7% compared with the same period last year. Still, the report data indicates that the number of crypto developers has grown 39% annually since Ethereum’s launch in 2015.
Breaking down the developers by type, the report indicates that the number of full-time developers fell 4% in 2024. Compared with the number of full-time developers in 2022, this year’s number is 14% lower. In contrast, the number of established developers — those in crypto for two or more years — increased 27% in 2024 and 65% compared with 2022 figures.
At 11,243, the number of established crypto developers is at an all-time high and appears poised for further growth, the report said.
Meanwhile, the data shows that Asia has surpassed North America to become the continent with the highest share of crypto developers. India led the continent by onboarding the most new crypto developers in 2024. While North America dropped to third place, the U.S. remained the top country with a 19% developer share, followed by India with 11.7%. The developer share of the rest of the top 10 countries was less than 5%.
Multi-Chain Developer Numbers Decline Marginally
As the data shows, the number of active monthly developers working on a single chain grew marginally from 18,210 in January 2024 to 18,511 by Nov. 1, 2024. Interestingly, between March and August, this number generally averaged more than 20,000 before it began declining. On the other hand, the number of multi-chain developers dropped from 5,523 at the start of 2024 to 5,102 by Nov. 1.
However, according to the report, the number of multi-chain developers, which stands at one for every three crypto developers, is still up from the 2015 share of less than 10%. The report meanwhile named Ethereum the top ecosystem for total developer activity on every continent, while Solana was the top ecosystem for new developers.
The report also found Bitcoin’s total developers to be the most “consistent,” with 42% working on scaling solutions, while Base is responsible for 42% of the new code being written in the Ethereum ecosystem.
