👉 Crypto developers are leaving smaller chains

Crypto developers move on from smaller chains.

Crypto development is slowing down. But the slowdown isn’t affecting every network equally.

According to new data from GitHub, weekly commits and active accounts belonging to developers working across blockchain projects have tumbled by more than 50% over the last three months. The decline came after a wave of activity that reached its peak in late 2025, just before the market correction that struck the industry in October.

But as overall activity does decline, one trend is emerging.

More and more developers are focusing their efforts in and around Ethereum and Solana, while smaller networks have difficulty keeping teams and contributors.

Fewer experiments, more consolidation

The change is part of a wider transformation in the crypto ecosystem.

Previous cycles were characterized by the emergence of new Layer-1 chains and DeFi protocols through developer experimentation with novel concepts. But that period of frenetic growth appears to be tapering off.

With liquidity gravitating increasingly towards the biggest protocols and ecosystems, many teams are giving up on niche projects.

Meanwhile some developers have gravitated toward A.I.-related projects, which have pulled a huge share of engineering talent over the past year.

Token launches have also changed. Rather than building a complex application from the ground up, countless projects use no-code token launch platforms, limiting their need for large developer teams.

The core developer base remains steady

The industry still has a relatively steady pool of contributors, even as activity decreased.

These reports indicate there are approximately 11,800 developers actively building on blockchain across major ecosystems. But the overall number of contributors has fallen by about 17% in the past year, a decline even greater than during some past bear markets.

There are several reasons for the slowdown.

The collapse of NFT gaming and speculative DeFi projects also wiped out whole categories that once required significant development staff. Venture funding also cooled, leaving less money around for experimental projects.

Security concerns have also been a factor. Some companies are taking precautions against hiring or expanding development efforts after investigations into the infiltration of crypto teams by North Korean-linked hacking groups.

A smaller set of winners

The end result is a slimmed-down ecosystem.

Dominant protocols such as Ethereum and Solana still catch the greedy eyes of devoted developer communities, thereby achieving sustainable activity. In contrast, other smaller chain projects like the likes of Internet Computer, Polkadot, Starknet and Celo are also yet to attract new teams.

Even ecosystems that used to rely heavily on developer incentives are losing people. BNB Chain, for instance, is said to have lost over 8% of its developer base in one year.

Translation: The crypto industry might be moving past the era of hundreds of rival chains.

Instead, development is coalescing around a handful of platforms with established liquidity, infrastructure and user adoption.

Perplexity technically launched an employee that can work 24/7 straight from your desk.

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