The recently published 2024 Crypto Developer Report by Electric Capital draws insights from 902 million code commits across 1.7 million repositories, showcasing trends that illuminate the industry’s trajectory.
According to Electric Capital, developers are the foundation of value creation in crypto. By building applications that deliver user value, developers create a flywheel effect—popular apps attract users, and new users inspire more developers to enter the space. This virtuous cycle, the report notes, is especially measurable in crypto, thanks to the industry’s open-source nature.
The report highlights that the crypto developer community has grown 24x since 2019, with 339 contributors joining in 2024 alone.
Geographically, crypto development is now more globally distributed than ever. The report reveals that Asia leads as the #1 continent by developer share, with the U.S., once at the forefront, dropping to #3. However, the U.S. remains the #1 country by developer share at 19%, even as this figure has declined from 38% in 2015. Notably, India emerged as the top onboarding country for new crypto developers in 2024. highlighting the region’s growing prominence in the ecosystem.
The Electric Capital report underscores significant diversification trends among developers and use cases. In 2024, 1 in 3 crypto developers worked across multiple chains, up from less than 10% in 2015. Ethereum continues to lead as the dominant ecosystem, boasting the highest total developer activity globally. Meanwhile, Solana emerged as the top ecosystem for new developers, growing by an impressive 83% year-over-year.
Base’s contributions to Ethereum’s ecosystem are particularly noteworthy, accounting for 42% of the new code being written. Solana and Base also dominate in specific use cases like low-fee NFT minting and transactions. For example, Solana leads decentralized exchange (DEX) usage, capturing 81% of DEX transactions, while Base ranks second in unique trading wallets.
Established developers, defined by Electric Capital as those active in crypto for two or more years, reached all-time highs in 2024, growing 27% year-over-year and contributing to 70% of all code commits. This stability indicates the maturing of the developer base despite a marginal 7% overall decline in total developer numbers.
User activity mirrors the global spread of development. According to the report, stablecoin transactions remain consistently active across all time zones, while NFT trading and minting peak during different regional work hours. These patterns reflect how varied use cases resonate with diverse user bases worldwide.
Electric Capital’s report also mentioned that stablecoins reached record highs, with $196 billion in circulating supply and $81 billion in daily transaction volume. Additionally, the report introduces Layered Restaking Technologies (LRTs) as a transformative new sector. Led by EigenLayer, LRTs added over $30 billion in total value locked (TVL) to Ethereum’s mainnet, driving developer adoption by 130%.
