Ethereum and Various Ecosystems: Developer Data Analysis and Ecosystem Insights

Developer Data Summary (Data as of September 2025) In the first nine months of 2025 (January to September), the Ethereum ecosystem attracted the most new developers across all blockchain projects, with a total of 16,181 new developers joining the ecosystem. In terms of overall scale, the Ethereum ecosystem holds an undisputed lead in the total number of active developers, which stands at a high of 31,869. Solana emerged as the second most favored platform for new developers, adding 11,534 developers during the same period, demonstrating strong expansion momentum in its developer community. The Bitcoin ecosystem also showed fast-growing developer participation in the first nine months of 2025, with the addition of 7,494 new developers. The Solana ecosystem has 17,708 active developers, ranking second, while Bitcoin has 11,036 active developers, forming the three major developer bases in the cryptocurrency space. Ethereum's developer statistics are a broad measure that comprehensively includes contributors to the Ethereum Layer-1 network and its Layer-2 networks (such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Unichain). Although Ethereum has the largest developer base, its growth rate for full-time developers has been relatively moderate, increasing by only 5.8% in the past year and 6.3% over the past two years. The Solana ecosystem’s number of full-time developers has seen a strong growth of 29.1% in the past year and a significant jump of 61.7% over the past two years, indicating the rapid maturation of its developer community. A representative from the Solana Foundation disputed the Electric Capital statistics, suggesting that the actual number of Solana developers might be underreported by approximately 7,800 individuals. The use of Artificial Intelligence coding tools and hackathon projects may be inflating the numbers, as these code submissions might lack the long-term, substantive value of continuous contributions.

Ecosystem Insights and Analysis Coexistence of Maturity (EVM) and Diversity: The blockchain industry's developer ecosystem is currently in a state where the maturity of the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) coexists with a high degree of development tool diversification. Deepening Ecosystem Moats: Ethereum (Ethereum) has established an unshakeable network effect moat based on its massive developer base, mature tool stack (EVM), and leading Layer-2 ecosystem. This scale advantage makes it the lowest-risk and most resource-rich environment for development. Emergence of High-Growth Poles: High-speed challengers like Solana are rapidly attracting a large number of ambitious, high-growth-seeking new developers by offering fundamental technical differentiation (such as high performance and low cost), forming a competition pole centered on speed. This competition is expanding the overall developer pool in the industry. AI-Enabled Developer Efficiency Revolution: AI programming tools will significantly enhance the efficiency of smart contract writing and auditing, lowering the entry barrier. However, this will also present a challenge: how to distinguish AI-generated "Vibe Coding" from truly valuable, long-term innovation will be key to measuring the health of the ecosystem. Continuous Improvement of Developer Infrastructure: The future outlook relies on superior developer infrastructure, richer educational resources, and mechanisms that can effectively screen and incentivize high-quality code contributions to manage the potential "noise" from hackathon or AI-generated code.