Ethereum Attracts Over 16,000 New Developers in Just Nine Months

Ethereum Retains Its Developer Crown

Ethereum continues to dominate the blockchain developer landscape, attracting more than 16,000 new developers between January and September 2025, according to data from Electric Capital cited by the Ethereum Foundation.

That surge cements Ethereum’s position as the largest active developer ecosystem in crypto, with a total of 31,869 developers building across its layer-1 and layer-2 networks. This includes Arbitrum, Optimism, Unichain, and others, as tracked by L2Beat - with no double-counting for contributors working across multiple projects.

Solana follows in second place, adding 11,500 developers, while Bitcoin ranks third with nearly 7,500 new coders joining its ecosystem this year.

Ethereum’s wide array of developer tools, DeFi protocols, and scaling solutions continues to make it the most attractive environment for blockchain engineers and builders.

Solana’s Rapid Growth Outpaces Ethereum

Although Ethereum leads in absolute numbers, Solana’s growth trajectory has been far steeper. The network saw a 29.1% rise in full-time developers over the past year and a 61.7% increase in the last two years, signaling growing confidence in Solana’s technical stack and speed.

In comparison, Ethereum’s growth has been more moderate - up 5.8% year-on-year and 6.3% over two years.

However, some Solana representatives say the numbers might still undercount their actual developer base. Jacob Creech, Solana Foundation’s head of developer relations, claimed the data underreports the network’s contributors by as much as 7,800 developers.

Solana’s strong developer influx has been driven by new DeFi protocols, consumer apps, and high-throughput infrastructure, especially after the success of its mobile and meme ecosystem boom earlier this year.

Questions Over Methodology and Accuracy

Not everyone is convinced by the report’s accuracy. Some developers argue that Electric Capital’s methodology may have overlooked interconnected ecosystems, such as EVM-compatible chains like Polygon and BNB Chain, whose developers often overlap with Ethereum’s.

Tomasz K. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind, pointed out that the data might misrepresent developer clusters:

Others noted that developer counts don’t always equate to real project growth - a growing number of GitHub repositories can be misleading if many are inactive.

Is AI Inflating Developer Numbers?

There’s also speculation that AI-assisted coding could be artificially inflating developer statistics. Some industry leaders argue that the rise of AI code generators and hackathon repositories could be creating an illusion of new entrants.

Jarrod Watts, head of Australia at Abstract, a layer-2 blockchain, was particularly skeptical:

Despite the criticism, most agree that the broader developer activity in the crypto industry remains healthy - especially as Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin continue to attract large, committed communities of builders.

Ethereum’s Developer Lead Reflects Its Network Effect

Ethereum’s consistent ability to attract new developers underscores its long-term dominance in blockchain innovation. With layer-2 adoption accelerating, AI integration expanding, and institutional players exploring tokenization and real-world assets (RWA), Ethereum’s developer ecosystem remains the heartbeat of decentralized innovation.

Even as rivals like Solana grow faster, Ethereum’s depth of experience and network effect continue to make it the de facto hub for serious blockchain development.