Ethereum and Solana Defy Crypto Downturn as Developer Exodus Hits Smaller Blockchains
A sharp, sector-wide decline in blockchain developer activity is concentrating talent in the industry's two largest ecosystems, Ethereum and Solana, as smaller networks lose critical momentum. New data reveals weekly GitHub commits and active developer accounts have plummeted by over 50% across most major crypto projects in the past three months, following a peak in late 2025 just before the October market crash. While overall crypto development has slowed, activity on Ethereum and Solana remains at a high baseline, signaling a dramatic consolidation of technical resources that could reshape the competitive landscape.
Developer activity dropped more rapidly in the past year, as niche projects lost activity, while there were also outflows for Ethereum and Solana. | Source: Artemis.
Contributors have shifted to AI models, abandoning the proliferation of crypto apps. Additionally, smaller DeFi apps have declined, as liquidity shifted to the biggest protocols. Token creation by dedicated teams also slowed down, replaced by no-coding launchpads.
This year, most of the crypto architecture has been set in place and tested in real time, with fewer breakthroughs and new trends.
Developer activity shows loyalty to Solana, Ethereum
Despite the general outflow of commits and GitHub accounts, ecosystems retain a level of loyal developers. Activity is also varying based on core features versus new apps or token deployment. Overall, blockchain development is not entirely defined or regulated.
Based on general developer reports, all tracked projects draw in 11,845 ecosystem developers, which remains a fairly constant number. However, in the past year, the crypto space saw a 17% outflow of developers, worse even than bear market years.
Some of the reasons include the slowdown of NFTs and on-chain games, which boosted activity and sometimes required full teams.
The other reason is that apps strictly rise or fail based on liquidity, rather than their pure product. Some of the liquidity outflows from L2 chains also led to a slowdown of development activity. L2s lost attention and dispersed their former teams.
Even innovative platforms like the Internet Computer, Polkadot, Starknet, and Celo have stopped attracting new teams.
BNB Chain, which was known for its developer incentives, also lost 8.4% of its developers in the past year.
Will crypto activity survive?
Crypto activity shifted to more streamlined use cases, abandoning the drive for the creation of small apps or games.
The loss of VC funding for some projects also slowed down developer activity. The other reason was that crypto tried to move seamlessly, and now depends on the surviving protocols with a proven track record.
One of the factors for more careful crypto development was cases of infiltration by DPRK hackers. As Cryptopolitan reported, hackers tried to join teams, and Web3 was almost perfect for infiltration.
The other big factor was the loss of confidence in tokens. Investors no longer wait for months for teams to ship features, while hyping their token. Users also looked for reliable working protocols, rather than novelty and potential risk. Development stopped on several narratives, including the ongoing creation of new DeFi hubs.
Some chains with trending use cases have added developers in the past year. The Bitcoin, Polygon, or even Litecoin networks have increased their developer count in the past year.
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