Experts report a drain of developers from the Bitcoin industry

As of October 1, 2023, there were 19,300 open-source crypto project developers. Over 12 months their number fell by 27%, according to отчета Electric Capital.

Experts from the company noted that, compared with the preceding bear market level (as of October 1, 2020), the indicator had risen by 66%.

Outflow was mainly driven by newcomers who have worked in crypto for less than a year. The number of specialists in this category fell by 58% or 8,300 people. The number of developers in the field for a longer period has increased slightly.

In September, 1,721 new developers entered the crypto space. This figure lags behind the values:

• for June — by 40%;
• for September 2022 — by 64%;
• for November 2021 (the market ATH) — by 67%.

According to experts, the dominance of newcomers in the industry is directly related to market cycles.

Six months after Bitcoin reached its peak in December 2017, newly arrived specialists accounted for 70% of all blockchain developers. Seven months after the market peak in November 2021, their share was 60%.

The opposite trend is seen among experienced developers who have worked in the industry for more than a year. Their share is rising amid protracted bear markets. For example, at present (roughly two years since the November 2021 lows) the figure stands at 70%.

Evaluating the relative contribution of these categories, Electric Capital concludes:

“Developers who remain in crypto write more code, do so on more days and stay in the industry longer than those who left.”

In conclusion, the experts highlighted several relatively large crypto projects (with at least 70 monthly active developers) that demonstrated a trend toward expanding their staff:

• Aztec Protocol (up 168% year over year to 76 active developers per month);
• Celestia (+145% to 81 people);
• Ripple (+18% to 172 people);
• TON (+8% to 126 people);
• zkSync (+6% to 229 people);
• StarkNet (+4% to 517 people).

As noted, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko linked the decline in blockchain developers in the United States to regulatory pressure on the industry.