Ethereum Appears to Lead 2025 Developer Activity While Growth Slows and Solana Challenges Counts

  • Ethereum hosts the largest developer base in 2025: 31,869 active developers (Electric Capital).

  • Solana recorded 11,500+ new developers Jan–Sep 2025; Bitcoin added nearly 7,500 new contributors.

  • Ethereum’s growth rate has cooled: full-time devs rose 5.8% year-over-year; Solana grew 29.1%.

Ethereum developer ecosystem 2025: 31,869 active devs and 16,000+ new contributors Jan–Sep — read the latest breakdown and what it means for builders.

By COINOTAG — Published October 17, 2025 · Updated October 17, 2025

How is the Ethereum developer ecosystem performing in 2025?

Ethereum developer ecosystem 2025 continues to lead in absolute developer participation: Electric Capital’s GitHub-based analysis shows 31,869 active developers across Ethereum L1 and L2 rollups through September 2025, with more than 16,000 developers newly joining between January and September 2025.

How do competing ecosystems compare?

Electric Capital’s cumulative figures place Solana second by new contributors in 2025 with over 11,500 developers added during the same nine-month span, while Bitcoin accounted for nearly 7,500 new contributors. Cumulative totals show Solana at about 17,708 developers and Bitcoin at 11,036. Other ecosystems — Polygon, Stacks, Sui, Internet Computer, BNB Chain, Stellar and Aptos — each remain below 7,000 cumulative developers in Electric Capital’s dataset.

Frequently Asked Questions

What methodology does Electric Capital use to count developers?

Electric Capital counts developers who made their first-ever code commit to a blockchain ecosystem in 2025, based on GitHub activity. Developers are counted once per parent ecosystem (to avoid duplication), and Ethereum’s count aggregates the layer‑1 network plus layer‑2 rollups as defined by L2Beat.

Why does Solana say its developer numbers are underreported?

Jacob Creech, head of developer relations at the Solana Foundation, said Electric Capital’s dataset misses many Solana repositories and urged contributors to submit repos so Solana’s internal crawlers can capture complete activity. This suggests variance can arise from repository discovery and classification methods.

Does developer headcount reflect activity or full‑time commitment?

Electric Capital reports active developer counts and also tracks full‑time developer trends. For Ethereum, full‑time developers increased by 5.8% over the past year and 6.3% over two years, indicating slower full‑time growth despite a large total base.

Detailed analysis

Electric Capital’s GitHub-driven analysis through September 2025 shows Ethereum’s ecosystem remains the largest by absolute developer participation. The dataset aggregates contributions across the L1 mainnet and recognised L2 rollups — including Arbitrum, Optimism and Unichain as classified by L2Beat — and counts a developer once per parent ecosystem even if they contribute to multiple subprojects. This approach reduces double counting but can mask cross‑chain activity.

Solana’s growth has been markedly faster on a relative basis: full‑time developer counts rose 29.1% in the past year and 61.7% over two years, the fastest among measured major ecosystems. By contrast, Ethereum’s full‑time developer growth is modest, which aligns with an industry trend where newer chains attract a higher percentage rate of recent entrants even if their absolute developer bases remain smaller.

Industry voices have weighed in on classification and interoperability. Tomasz Stańczak, co‑executive director at the Ethereum Foundation, observed that ecosystem groupings should account for technological overlap: “EVM chains should be grouped together. Developers on Polygon and BNB clearly can reuse the majority of skills and EVM tooling. It would also appreciate Starknet’s efforts in building the great CairoVM developer community by showing their growth.”

Data caveats: social media and third‑party reconstructions can diverge. One user noted a mismatch between reported developer counts and visible dApp availability, highlighting that repository discovery and private‑repo activity are potential blind spots. Chainspect and other independent analysts have previously raised similar classification questions in public commentary.

Compensation dynamics are also relevant to developer supply. The Protocol Guild reports a median annual salary for an Ethereum core developer at approximately $140,000, notably lower than comparable private‑sector blockchain roles which average $359,000. That pay gap has prompted retention concerns; one anonymous contributor reportedly declined a $700,000 package to remain working on Ethereum open‑source infrastructure.

Separately, the Ethereum Foundation deployed funds to support ecosystem work: EF announced it placed 2,400 ETH (approximately $9.6 million) plus around $6 million in stablecoins into a yield‑bearing Morpho vault. In its announcement the Ethereum Foundation described Morpho as “a pioneer in permissionless DeFi protocols” and noted that Morpho Vault v2 and Morpho Blue v1 were released under the GPL2.0 license, reflecting alignment with Ethereum’s open‑source principles.

Key Takeaways

  • Market leadership: Ethereum remains the largest developer ecosystem in 2025 by absolute numbers (31,869 active developers).
  • Relative growth: Newer chains such as Solana show faster growth rates, indicating momentum among recent entrants.
  • Talent and funding: Pay disparities and foundation funding moves will shape retention and open‑source resilience; monitoring compensation and grant flows is crucial.

Conclusion

The Electric Capital dataset through September 2025 confirms Ethereum’s position as the largest developer ecosystem, but growth rates and classification nuances mean relative momentum favors some newer chains. Stakeholders should watch technical interoperability (EVM vs non‑EVM), repository discovery methods, and compensation trends to assess future developer allocation. For ongoing updates and deeper breakdowns, follow COINOTAG coverage and primary sources such as Electric Capital, L2Beat, the Ethereum Foundation and the Solana Foundation (public statements).

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