Crypto developer activity spreads in Asia as Solana support grows: Electric Capital

Crypto's best minds are moving east, and at a pace other regions are struggling to catch up to.

Asia was responsible for 32% of global crypto developer activity by 2024, according to a report by Venture Electric Capital. The company recently published its comprehensive annual report analyzing more than 900 million codes in the crypto industry.

The change represents a nearly three-fold increase from Asia's 12 percent share in 2015, while North America's position fell from 43 percent to 24 percent over the same period.

Specifically, the report tracks only code functionality and data storage. Information about developers' ethnicity, citizenship, or other demographic indicators did not appear to be measured in the study.

The study methodology specifies that certain types of code, such as data lists and resource repositories, are excluded to effectively limit the study to code developed by “active” developers.

Maria Shen, a general partner at Electric Capital at X (formerly Twitter), said the study “should count” because “we're only looking at the open source dev movement.”

The report shows that India is the main driver of this shift, claiming 11.7 percent of the global crypto developer share. This puts the country in second place after the United States with a share of 18.7 percent.

Asia's surge in growth talent has also changed traditional industry dynamics, with India now leading the way in new developer recruitment from 2023, outstripping all regions globally.

More “established” devs than ever

Against the backdrop of active growth globally, Electric Capital has seen a 7% decline this year, meaning the crypto industry has lost more developers than it has gained. According to the study, however, this figure is still within a safe margin based on annual trends.

Established developers, or those with more than two years of experience in crypto, are up 27 percent year over year. These older devs now account for more than 70% of the code running in major blockchain ecosystems.

The report analyzed 902 million code executions across 1.7 million repositories, revealing significant changes in development patterns and platform preferences.

Ethereum maintains its position as a major development platform in most regions. However, Solana has emerged as the preferred choice for new developers. Solana has secured strong secondary positions in key markets including the United States, United Kingdom, China and Canada.

New divs are under construction.

Despite a highly volatile year, crypto is steadily attracting software talent, bringing in more than 39,000 new developers by 2024. For these new developers, Solana became the top choice in July this year. Even ecosystems outside of Ethereum and Solana are drawing numbers.

Internet Computer, Aptos, Base, Bitcoin, Sui, Close, Polkadot, and Polygon are ranked as the top two chains with the most new devs. For each of these chains, at least 1,000 new developers arrived in the past year.

This influx of new talent is particularly strong in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, which claimed 41% of new DVs. This reflects the growing technical sophistication of previously underrepresented regions in space.

This shift in geographic distribution points to how the crypto industry as a whole is maturing, emerging, and increasing its dominance in the Western Hemisphere. This means that, at least in terms of developer activity, emerging markets are driving most of the new growth.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.