Solana Is Pulling in Developers at a Rate That Is Starting to Show Up in the Data

Solana started at 6% in 2020 and has since climbed to 23%. The direction of travel on both sides has been consistent enough that it is no...

Written by: Sophia Cruz • Friday, May 8, 2026 • 2 min read

• Last updated: Friday, May 8, 2026

Quick overview

Ethereum's share of active blockchain developers has dropped from 82% to 31% over six years, while Solana's share has increased from 6% to 23%.
Among professional developers, Ethereum still leads with 37%, but Solana has significantly increased its share from 5% to 20%.
Solana has attracted more new developers than Ethereum in the past year, with 4,100 first-time contributors compared to Ethereum's 3,700.
Despite Solana's growing on-chain activity and institutional adoption, the SOL/ETH price ratio has decreased, raising questions about market perceptions.

Six years ago, Ethereum had 82% of all active blockchain developers. A new report from Syndica puts that figure at 31% today. Solana started at 6% in 2020 and has since climbed to 23%. The direction of travel on both sides has been consistent enough that it is no longer a trend worth debating, it is the established reality of where builders are choosing to work.

Breaking that down by developer type adds texture to the headline numbers. Ethereum holds 37% of professional developers, still the largest share, but down sharply from where it was. Solana has gone from 5% to 20% in the same category. Among hobbyists, Solana has flipped the order entirely, sitting at 28% against Ethereum’s 24%. Last year Solana also brought in more new developers than Ethereum did, attracting around 4,100 first-time contributors to Ethereum’s 3,700.

One finding in the report that does not get enough attention is how concentrated code output is on each network. On Ethereum, a small group of very active contributors drives the majority of the work, with the top tier accounting for more than half of all commits. Solana’s output is spread more evenly across its developer base, which tends to make an ecosystem more durable and less dependent on any particular set of individuals staying engaged.

The on-chain numbers back the developer story up. Solana processed 25.3 billion transactions in the first quarter of 2026, against Ethereum’s 200 million over the same stretch. Stablecoin volume on the network has grown roughly twelve times year on year, with Circle minting close to $9.5 billion in USDC on Solana in April alone. Western Union and Bank of America have both started using Solana for stablecoin settlement, a concrete sign of where institutional infrastructure is heading.

Prices have not caught up. The SOL/ETH ratio ended Q1 down nearly 6%, even as the on-chain gap between the two networks kept widening. Whether that disconnect reflects genuine skepticism about Solana’s long-term position or simply a market that is slow to reprice is the question worth watching from here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.