Crypto developers hit lowest level since 2020, according to data

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Crypto developers hit lowest level since 2020, according to data

The number of active, open-source developers in crypto has reached its lowest point since 2020, according to Web3 VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Electric Capital.

Data from the former's State of Crypto Index shows that crypto coders have nearly halved from their peak last year, sliding from 36,500 active devs in January 2022 to just 19,630 active devs in September 2023.

The last time developers were below this level was in December 2020, near the start of the cryptocurrency bull market, boasting around 18,100 devs at the time, before roaring upwards alongside the digital asset market.

Paul Cafiero, a communication partner at a16z Crypto, confirmed to Decrypt that the data is accurate. In response, CTO Eddy Lazzarin said that the displayed figure may not tell the whole story.

s popular ecosystems project to identify crypto-related Github repos, Lazzarin explained over Twitter. The tool effectively monitors the number of active developers working with each one of the embedded repositories on the site.

We're curious how much Crypto dev is now happening outside of the open source infra repos, he said.

Development is the process of writing source code which can be easily shared with anyone and can be freely distributed. The decentralization and trust of digital entrepreneurs often prioritize open-sourcing their projects, instead of claiming them as intellectual property.

While developer count may have decreased, the firm suspects that a significant number of developers are moving into crypto's application layer. There, it says, activity is increasing, but it is much harder to track on a dev-by-dev basis.

In fact, other data suggest that crypto development on the planet is still growing. A16z also tracks crypto developer library downloads, which reached an all-time high last month.

He added that he counted the same, recounted the same.