Solana has claimed the top spot as the preferred blockchain ecosystem for new developers, eclipsing Ethereum’s dominance for the first time in nearly a decade.
Electric Capital released a report that showed 7,625 new Solana developers had joined in the previous year. It was the first time Ethereum has been surpassed in terms of developer attraction in over two years.
Solana has also positioned itself as the fastest-growing large ecosystem, with over 2,000 monthly active developers—a remarkable 83% year-over-year growth. This surge aligns with Solana’s global adoption, particularly in Asia. Solana has the second-highest developer activity across all continents.
In India, it is the most popular developer ecosystem. The US, UK and Canada are also among the second-best. In Africa and Nigeria, it is a popular choice.
Harrison Obiefule, co-lead of Solana Superteam Nigeria, attributes the network’s success in Africa to its grassroots approach, which focused on decentralization, talent development, and a mission to onboard users through earning rather than buying crypto.
Why are developers attracted to Solana, Spain?
Electric Capital’s findings indicate that Solana’s appeal lies in its efficiency, scalability, and low transaction costs.
This platform is favored by developers who are looking to build cost-effective apps. The network currently powers 81% decentralized exchange transactions (DEX), and 64% of NFT mining across all platforms.
By 2024 it had processed transactions for 1.7 millions unique wallets. That was seven times faster than its closest rival.
Moreover, Solana’s DeFi ecosystem has also flourished, with on-chain settlement volumes surpassing $574 billion in 2024 across DEX platforms. Its share of TVL (total value locked) outside Ethereum has also grown, from 3% up to 25%. This makes it one of fastest growing blockchain ecosystems when it comes to capital inflow.
Ethereum dominates the market
Despite Solana’s remarkable ascent, Ethereum remains the largest blockchain ecosystem in terms of overall developer activity.
While Ethereum’s monthly active developers dropped by 17% over the past year to 6,244, it still dominates in most regions, including Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, and South America.
Ethereum’s layer-2 solutions have continued to thrive, with a 67% increase in activity since 2021. Nearly 26% of all blockchain developers are now building on Ethereum’s main network or layer-2 platforms.
Base, among Ethereum Virtual Machine chains (EVM), has been a top performer. It accounted for 25 percent of the original code logic on-chain in 2024. According to the report:
“Base is responsible for 42% of the new code being written in the Ethereum ecosystem.”
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