The Solana Foundation recently reported a significant presence of developers in its ecosystem, citing over 2,500 monthly active developers. This statistic, reflecting activity throughout 2023, indicates that the number of developers actively contributing to Solana’s network has remained between 2,500 and 3,000.
This sustained developer engagement is seen as a key indicator of the ecosystem’s health, demonstrating its ability to attract and retain new talent. The Foundation’s report focuses on developers contributing to public repositories.
Despite this positive trend, contrasting data from Electric Capital’s Developer Report, based on GitHub information as of October 1, 2023, showed a lower count of 946 developers for Solana, a decrease from the all-time high of 2,634 recorded on December 22, 2022. This discrepancy suggests a fluctuation in developer activity levels throughout the year.
In comparison, Ethereum’s monthly active developer count stood at 5,769 as of October 1, 2023, down 22% from its peak of 7,433 on June 16, 2022.
Notably, Solana has experienced a 50% increase in developer retention over the past three months, coinciding with heightened network activity and a significant rally in the price of the SOL token. Between October and December, Solana’s SOL token surged by 500%, briefly surpassing Binance’s BNB token in market capitalization and reaching yearly highs.
This uptick in developer interest and network activity, including briefly exceeding Ethereum in 24-hour decentralized exchange volumes, underscores the growing momentum in Solana’s ecosystem. The Solana Foundation has yet to respond to requests for further comments on these developments.