Blockchain development activity has sharply declined over the past year, with weekly code commits falling approximately 75% and the number of active developers dropping by roughly 50%. According to data from analytics platform Artemis, weekly commits to open-source crypto repositories have plummeted from a peak of around 871,000 to just 218,000, while weekly active developers decreased from about 8,700 to 4,600.
The slowdown has been particularly pronounced over the last three months, affecting all major blockchain ecosystems. Ethereum's weekly active developer count fell 34% to 2,811, while Solana saw a 40% drop to 942 developers. Layer 2 network Base experienced a 52% decline to 378 developers. Newer chains like Aptos lost about 60% of its developers, BNB Chain commits plunged 85%, and Celo fell 52%. The only category showing growth was wallet infrastructure, which rose about 6%.
This contraction stands in stark contrast to the broader software industry. GitHub added about 36 million developers in 2025 alone, with platform-wide commits rising roughly 25% year-over-year. Much of this growth is being driven by artificial intelligence, with GitHub now hosting more than 4.3 million AI-related repositories. The number of repos importing large language model software development kits surged about 178% to over 1.1 million.
Experts cite several reasons for the crypto decline: a significant shift in public interest toward AI, a prevailing market downturn that started in October 2025, and a trend of projects becoming more closed-source, sharing less work publicly on GitHub. Furthermore, AI tools are boosting developer productivity, allowing for greater output with fewer public commits, which can mask ongoing project progress.
The data suggests the industry may be consolidating rather than collapsing. Electric Capital's report shows the sector peaked at roughly 31,000 monthly active developers in 2022 before falling to about 23,600 in 2024, with estimates suggesting further declines. The remaining workforce is becoming more experienced, with developers having over two years of tenure now producing roughly 70% of commits, while part-time contributors and newcomers have seen a 58% decline.
