Weekly Code Commits to Crypto Projects Drop 75% as Developers Shift to AI

BroadChain03/12/2026, 03:27 PM

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Summary

Blockchain developers are migrating en masse to the AI sector. Data shows weekly code commits to crypto projects have plunged 75% since early 2025, while active developers have declined by 56%. Meanwhile, overall GitHub commit volume has risen 25%, and the number of AI-related repositories has surged. Developer counts on major public blockchains—including Ethereum, Solana, Aptos, BNB Chain, Celo, and Base—have all declined significantly, with only wallet infrastructure showing marginal growth. The industry faces a structural challenge: experienced developers remain, but new entrants are rapidly leaving.

BroadChain has learned that as of March 12, the blockchain ecosystem is experiencing a developer exodus, even as AI projects dominate growth on GitHub.

Data from Artemis reveals a stark decline in crypto development activity since the start of 2025. Weekly code commits have plummeted from roughly 850,000 to about 210,000—a drop of approximately 75%. Concurrently, the number of active developers has fallen by 56% to around 4,600.

This trend stands in sharp contrast to GitHub's overall growth. The platform added about 36 million new developers in 2025, expanding its global user base to over 180 million. Overall commit volume across GitHub grew by roughly 25% year-on-year.

AI is driving much of this expansion. The platform now hosts over 4.3 million AI-related repositories. Those integrating large language model (LLM) SDKs surged by about 178% to exceed 1.1 million, while monthly active contributors to generative AI projects topped 1 million.

Supporting this AI boom, Jupyter Notebook repositories grew by approximately 75%, and Dockerfile repositories increased by around 120%. Reflecting a shift in developer preferences, TypeScript has overtaken Python and JavaScript to become GitHub's most-used programming language.

Within the crypto sector, key ecosystems have seen significant developer attrition over the last three months:

Ethereum's weekly active developers fell 34% to 2,811.
Solana dropped 40% to 942.
Base declined 52% to 378.

Aptos lost roughly 60% of its developers, BNB Chain's commit volume fell 85%, and Celo's dropped 52%. Wallet infrastructure was the sole category showing growth, with active developers rising about 6% to 308.

This decline continues a longer-term trend. According to Electric Capital's annual report, the industry's monthly active developers peaked at around 31,000 in 2022 before falling to approximately 23,600 in 2024.

The report also highlights a concentration of experience among remaining developers. Those with over two years in crypto contributed roughly 70% of all commits, while the cohort of newcomers with less than 12 months of experience shrank by 58%.