A recent report by Electric Capital highlighted that 7,625 developers of the 39,148 new developers globally joined the Solana network in the year 2024, driving a 83% year over year growth.

The report shows that this is the first time any blockchain ecosystem has surpassed Ethereum’s growth rate in developer attraction since 2016.

Solana, launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, is a blockchain platform which uses a proof-of-stake mechanism to provide smart contracts functionality. Proof-of-stake protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchains, that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings.

While Ethereum still leads in total developer count globally, Solana ranks second. Other blockchains, including Aptos, Polygon, and Bitcoin, also saw significant developer growth in the past year.

What Is Behind The Massive Adoption Of Solana?

1. The Solana ecosystem leads in low-fee use cases, with 81% of all DEX transactions and 64% of all NFT mint transactions across all chains. It is a reflection of the IBRL ethos that’s core to the Solana community.
2. Solana is designed for scale. In 2024, there were over 1.7M unique wallets transacted on Solana, that is 7x more than the next biggest chain.
3. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) activity is growing rapidly and the Solana ecosystem is at the forefront of that growth. With over $574B across DEXes in 2024, surpassing Ethereum in onchain settlement volume. Solana is also the largest growing ecosystem by TVL outside of Ethereum, surging from 3% to 25% of onchain capital.

Solana is reaching the world globally and is led by developer growth in Asia. It is also recorded as the top ecosystem for new developers in India, and ranks second in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and China. Solana is also recorded as the leading choice across Africa, especially in Nigeria.

Harrison Obiefule, co-lead of Solana Superteam Nigeria, attributes the network’s success in Africa to its grassroots approach, which focuses on decentralization, talent development, community building and a mission to onboard users through earning rather than buying crypto.

Solana generally credits its community-driven efforts and focus on scalability as a major factor in its massive expansion.