Ethereum Leads in New Developers, Overtaking Solana and Bitcoin
Date: 2025-10-16 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
According to Electric Capital data cited by the Ethereum Foundation, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has added 16,181 new developers to its ecosystem since the beginning of 2025. This figure puts Ethereum first in terms of developer growth. Solana took second place with 11,534 new contributors, while Bitcoin rounded out the top three with 7,494. Polygon (3,681) and Stacks (3,246) followed.
In addition to the growth in new developers, Ethereum also maintains its lead in the number of active developers, with 31,869. This is almost double Solana's active developer count of 17,708. Experts note that Ethereum's popularity among developers is due to several key factors: deep liquidity, powerful tools, developed Layer 2 infrastructure, and high on-chain demand.
Dozens of Layer 2 solutions operate on Ethereum, making the network more scalable. According to L2Beat, over $52.94 billion is locked in Layer 2 networks, a 28.8% increase from the previous year. The largest projects in this segment are Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism.
Ethereum also maintains its leadership in the decentralized application and DeFi protocol space. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi on the network exceeds $87.2 billion, confirming its sustainable development and attractiveness to new teams.
However, the crypto community's reaction has been mixed. Some users have expressed doubts that Ethereum truly deserves such popularity among developers. One participant, Guy on the Earth, noted that despite years of experience working with the platform, he finds it "extremely inconvenient for regular users" and doesn't understand why the network's quality isn't improving with so many specialists.
Other participants, on the contrary, stated that almost every developer entering the industry eventually migrates to Ethereum, considering it the main hub of blockchain innovation.
The presence of over 7,000 active developers on the Bitcoin network also sparked particular interest. A user named Suraj Sharma wondered what exactly these specialists do, alluding to the comparatively limited development capabilities in the cryptocurrency's ecosystem.
Earlier, the Brevis project, which is working on scaling Ethereum, introduced Pico Prism zkEVM technology, which brought the blockchain closer to achieving a throughput of 10,000 transactions per second.
