Ethereum Attracted More than 16K New Devs over 9 Months

Why It Matters

Analysts warn the metrics may be inflated by AI‑generated or short‑lived hackathon repos and by inconsistent chain grouping, but the numbers nonetheless underscore Ethereum’s lead in developer engagement—an advantage for protocol innovation, tooling growth and ecosystem value capture.

Summary

The Ethereum Foundation says more than 16,000 new developers joined the Ethereum ecosystem between January and September, bringing its total active developer base to 31,869 and outpacing Solana (17,708) and Bitcoin (11,036). The Ethereum figure includes layer‑1 plus layer‑2 networks as defined by L2Beat; Electric Capital data shows Solana added >11,500 new devs and Bitcoin ~7,500, though Solana’s foundation says the tracker undercounts its contributors by about 7,800. Analysts warn the metrics may be inflated by AI‑generated or short‑lived hackathon repos and by inconsistent chain grouping, but the numbers nonetheless underscore Ethereum’s lead in developer engagement—an advantage for protocol innovation, tooling growth and ecosystem value capture.