GitHub Data Leak Reveals Massive Exodus of Crypto Developers Post-2022, AI Emerges as Developers' New Destination

March 12 — Data from GitHub, the world’s largest code-hosting platform, shows the blockchain ecosystem is facing a broad developer exodus, while artificial intelligence (AI) projects are driving the platform’s growth. Since early 2025, weekly crypto-related code commits to repositories have plummeted by ~75% (from ~850,000 to 210,000), and active developers have dropped 56% to ~4,600, per analysis firm Artemis. Repositories—where devs track code, build tools, and launch new projects—are a clear barometer of software innovation trends. This contraction contrasts sharply with the broader software ecosystem’s growth. GitHub’s 2025 Octoverse report notes the platform added ~36 million developers last year, pushing total global users past 180 million, with overall code submissions up ~25% year-over-year (YoY). Most of that growth flowed into AI: GitHub now hosts over 4.3 million AI-related repositories. Over the past year, repositories importing large language model (LLM) development toolkits have surged 178% to over 1.1 million. Generative AI projects also attract over 1 million monthly contributors—signaling devs are shifting time from blockchain to AI infrastructure. Other AI-related metrics are climbing: - Jupyter Notebook repos (for machine learning experiments) are up ~75%. - Dockerfile repos (for deploying AI apps) have jumped ~120%. - TypeScript—used for modern web dev and many AI tools—added over 1 million contributors in a year, surpassing Python and JavaScript to become GitHub’s most popular language. In crypto, developer declines are widespread but uneven: - Over 3 months: Ethereum active devs down 34% to 2,811; Solana down 40% to 942; Base (Coinbase’s 2024 fast-growing Layer 2) down 52% to 378. - Emerging public chains (bull market spec targets last year) fared worse: Aptos lost ~60% of devs; BNB Chain code commits down 85%; Celo down 52%. - Only growing category: Wallet infrastructure, with weekly active devs up ~6% to 308. But data suggests crypto is consolidating, not collapsing. Electric Capital’s annual Developer Report finds the industry’s monthly active devs peaked at ~31,000 in 2022, fell to ~23,600 by 2024, and dropped to ~18,000 by mid-2025. The remaining dev pool is also shifting: Devs with >2 years of experience are up ~27% YoY and now make ~70% of code contributions. Attrition is concentrated among part-timers and newcomers (<12 months experience), with that group down 58% over the tracking period.