Solana Overtakes Ethereum as Top Ecosystem for New Developers in 2024: Report

Electric Capital’s 2024 Developer Report has revealed that, for the first time since 2016, Solana surpassed Ethereum as the leading blockchain ecosystem to attract new developers.

The breakthrough highlights Solana’s rapid growth, with 7,625 new developers joining the network in the last 12 months, representing an 83% year-on-year increase.

Increased developer activity

The report, published on December 12, analyzed more than 902 million code commits across 1.7 million repositories, showing that Solana’s developer community is the fastest growing among major blockchain networks.

This increase was driven by strong participation from builders in Asia, where the network ranked as the number one platform for new developers in India and second in other major markets such as the US, UK, Canada and China.

Reacting to the news, Solana credited its community-driven ethos and focus on scalability for playing a big role in its expansion. By 2024, it captured over 81% of all decentralized exchange (DEX) transactions, as well as 64% of NFT mint transactions across all chains.

In addition, its portfolio activity reached 1.7 million users, a figure seven times higher than that of the next largest chain.

However, despite Solana’s newfound status, Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for total developer activity. Despite onboarding 1,169 fewer developers than its rival, globally, Ethereum continues to lead metrics such as monthly active developers and code commits.

Additionally, established builders with more than two years as contributors are at an all-time high on Vitalik Buterin’s blockchain, with 70% of commits coming from them.

Solana taking small steps

However, Solana’s growth reflects broader diversification trends within the crypto industry. According to Electric Capital’s study, one in three developers now work on multiple chains, compared to less than 10% in 2015. The platform capitalized on this trend, positioning itself as an alternative for use cases of low cost, decentralized finance (DeFi), and NFT.

To highlight the progress, the chain overruled Ethereum in several measures this year, albeit momentarily, including exceeding its total weekly transaction fees and Maximum Minable Value (MEV) tips in July.

Additionally, in November, the platform’s DEXs hit a milestone with one-day trading figures exceeding $5 billion for three consecutive days for the first time in their history. Activity peaked days later, causing the network to break another record when its monthly decentralized exchange volumes reached $70 billion.

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