The crypto industry has experienced a mixed year for developer growth in 2024, with a slight decline in overall numbers but long-term fundamental trends continuing to strengthen.
As new developers explore the space, the number of full-time roles has decreased and significant regional shifts have occurred as Asia has emerged as a dominant hub for crypto development.
Despite 39,148 new developers entering the crypto space in 2024, the total number of developers working in the industry decreased by 7% YoY. However, the ecosystem saw record activity from established developers (those with two or more years of experience), whose numbers increased by 27% year-over-year (YoY) and accounted for 70% of all code submissions.
Asia has overtaken North America as the top region for crypto developers in 2024, marking a major shift in the industry’s geographic landscape. India played a key role in this shift, adding the largest number of new crypto developers during the year. While the United States remains the leading country with a 19% developer share, this figure is down significantly from 38% in 2015. North America currently ranks third in developer share behind Asia and Europe.
Ethereum continues to dominate as the top ecosystem for developer activity on every continent. Specifically, Base, an Ethereum layer-2 solution, accounted for 42% of all new code written in the Ethereum ecosystem in 2024. Meanwhile, Solana emerged as the leading ecosystem for attracting new developers, growing 83% YoY.
Developers are increasingly working on a variety of blockchain platforms. One in three developers now contribute to more than one chain, up from less than 10% in 2015. Bitcoin has also maintained a stable developer base, with 42% focusing on scaling solutions like the Lightning Network.
Crypto activity now spans all time zones, reflecting truly global adoption. Stablecoin transactions remained consistent during Asian, European, and African business hours, increasing by 2-3% during these periods. Meanwhile, NFT trading peaked during American business hours, while minting activity increased during Asian business hours, highlighting regional differences in crypto use cases.
*This is not investment advice.