Crypto's best minds are heading east, and it's gaining at a pace that other regions are finding hard to catch up to.
Asia was responsible for 32% of global crypto developer activity in 2024, according to a report from venture firm Electric Capital. The firm recently published its comprehensive annual report, analyzing over 900 million code commits across the crypto industry.
The transformation represents a nearly threefold increase from Asia's 12% share in 2015, while North America's position declined from 43% to 24% during the same period.
Notably, the report only tracks the geographic location of the code commits and repository data. Information about developers' nationalities, citizenship, or other demographic indicators do not appear to be parameters in the study.
The study's methodology specifies that certain types of code, such as data lists and asset repositories, were excluded to effectively limit the study to code made by "active" developers.
Maria Shen, a General Partner at Electric Capital, said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the study had to "undercount" because "we look at open-source dev activity only."
The report shows that India stands out as a primary driver of this shift, claiming 11.7% of global crypto developer share. This places the country second only to the United States' 18.7% share.
The surge in Asian development talent has reshaped traditional industry dynamics as well, with India now leading in new developer recruitment since 2023, outpacing all other regions globally.
More "established" devs than ever
In terms of active development on a global scale, Electric Capital says that there's been a 7% decline this year, which means that the crypto industry lost more developers than it gained. The study notes, however, that this figure is still on a safe margin based on annual trends.
Established developers, or those with more than two years of experience in crypto, have increased 27% year-over-year. These veteran devs now account for over 70% of code commits across major blockchain ecosystems.
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The report analyzed 902 million code commits across 1.7 million repositories, revealing significant changes in development patterns and platform preferences.
Ethereum maintains its position as the dominant development platform in most regions. However, Solana has emerged as the preferred choice for new developers. Solana also secured strong second-place positions across major markets including the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Canada.
New devs are building
Despite a highly volatile year, crypto is steadily attracting software talent, bringing in over 39,000 new developers in 2024. For these new developers, Solana had become the top choice by July this year. Even ecosystems outside of Ethereum and Solana are drawing numbers.
Internet Computer, Aptos, Base, Bitcoin, Sui, NEAR, Polkadot, and Polygon rank as the chains with the most number of new devs after the top two. For each of these chains, at least 1,000 new developers were brought in over the course of the last year.
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This influx of new talent shows particular strength in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, which claimed 41% of new devs. This suggests growing technical sophistication in regions that were previously underrepresented in the space.
This shift in geographic distribution also signals how the crypto industry in general is maturing, branching out and outgrowing the Western hemisphere's dominance. This means that, at least in terms of developer activity, emerging markets are driving much of the new growth.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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