Solana Jumps to 23% Developer Share..."Ethereum's Monopoly is a Thing of the Past"

▲ Solana (SOL)

Ethereum's (ETH) dominance in the blockchain developer ecosystem is rapidly weakening. Solana (SOL) is putting pressure on Ethereum, jumping from a 6% share of total active developers in 2020 to 23% in 2026. During the same period, Ethereum's share dropped from 82% to 31%. The perception that major blockchain developers focus solely on Ethereum can no longer be supported by figures.

According to The Street on May 7, a new report by Syndica revealed that Solana has rapidly grown its presence in the global developer pool over the past six years. The report analyzed that Ethereum's overwhelming dominance has steadily weakened as developers seek more decentralized and faster networks. Base emerged as a strong third-place contender with a 14% share of total active developers.

The gap is also narrowing in the professional developer market. Ethereum still holds the lead with a 37% share, but its dominance has significantly decreased compared to 82% in 2020. Solana increased its professional developer base from 5% to 20% during the same period. In the hobbyist developer segment, Solana surpassed Ethereum with a 28% share compared to Ethereum's 24%.

Solana's upward trend was also prominent in attracting new developers. According to the report, Solana attracted approximately 4,100 new developers in 2025, surpassing Ethereum's 3,700. Solana expanded its developer base faster than Ethereum at almost every stage since its launch, and its developer count in its fifth year was approximately 50% higher than Ethereum's in its fifth year.

Ben Nadareski, co-founder and CEO of Solstice, a Solana-based DeFi protocol, explained that Solana's appeal is growing due to the speed and cost-efficiency required for real financial applications. Nadareski stated, “Transactions are happening on Solana.” He added, “Activity has moved to where the cost and speed are right.” He further noted that with multiple DeFi integrations, products requiring fast settlements are becoming realistically difficult to operate on slow and high-cost networks.

Solana also showed a clear advantage in non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) family networks. Currently, Solana accounts for 60% of weekly active developers in this category, more than the next five competing chains combined. Differences also appeared in development practices. 17% of Solana's developer work was done on weekends, while on Ethereum, the top 1% of developers produced 51% of the total code. Solana's top contributor share was 31%.

Nadareski said, “The custody side is integrating Solana faster than it integrated Ethereum five years ago. This is because institutional demand is greater and clearer.” The report stated that while the US remains the largest single development hub for major chains, India, China, and the UK are filling that gap, indicating the globalization of the industry.

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