BlockBeats report, March 12: Data from GitHub, the world's largest code hosting platform, shows that the blockchain ecosystem is experiencing widespread developer attrition, while AI projects are driving platform growth.
According to data from the analytics platform Artemis, since the beginning of 2025, the weekly volume of cryptocurrency-related code commits has dropped by approximately 75%, from around 850,000 to 210,000; the number of active developers has decreased by 56%, currently standing at about 4,600. Code repositories are where developers write code, build tools, and launch new projects, and they represent one of the clearest indicators of software innovation trends.
This contraction stands in stark contrast to the growth of the entire software ecosystem. According to GitHub’s Octoverse report, GitHub added approximately 36 million new developers in 2025 alone, bringing the global user base to over 180 million, with a year-over-year increase of about 25% in total code commits across the platform. Much of this growth has been directed toward artificial intelligence. GitHub currently hosts over 4.3 million repositories related to AI.
Over the past year, the number of code repositories adopting large language model software development kits surged by approximately 178%, exceeding 1.1 million. Meanwhile, generative AI projects attract over one million contributors each month. These figures indicate that developers are reallocating their time from blockchain to AI infrastructure.
The number of Jupyter Notebooks repositories for common machine learning experiments increased by approximately 75%. Repositories containing Dockerfiles for deploying AI applications surged by about 120%. TypeScript, the programming language underlying modern web applications and numerous AI tools, gained over one million new contributors within a year, surpassing Python and JavaScript to become the most used language on GitHub.
Across the cryptocurrency space, declines in developer numbers are widespread but vary in degree. Artemis data shows that Ethereum’s weekly active developers dropped 34% over three months to 2,811; Solana decreased by 40% to 942; and Base, one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in 2024 and a Coinbase-backed Layer 2 network, fell 52% to 378.
The emerging public blockchains that attracted speculative interest during last year’s bull market fared the worst. Aptos lost approximately 60% of its developers, BNB Chain saw a 85% decline in code commits, and Celo dropped by 52%. The only category still growing is wallet infrastructure, with its weekly active developers increasing by about 6% to 308.
However, the data also suggests that the crypto space may be undergoing consolidation rather than collapse. According to Electric Capital’s annual developer report, the number of monthly active developers in the industry peaked at approximately 31,000 in 2022, declined to about 23,600 in 2024, and further dropped to around 18,000 by mid-2025.
The composition of remaining developers is also changing. The number of developers with more than two years of experience increased by approximately 27% year-over-year and now account for about 70% of code contributions. The main losses were among part-time contributors and newcomers with less than 12 months of experience, a group that decreased by 58% over the tracking period.