How to Analyze Developer Activity Data for a New Public Chain
Conclusion: To analyze developer activity on a new public chain, you need to look at three dimensions simultaneously—number of developers, commit frequency, and depth—monthly active developers, code commit trends, and the share of experienced developers. A range of free or low-cost tools are available that you can use directly, without having to scrape data yourself.
Step 1: First define three core metrics clearly—don't be misled by a single data point
Before analyzing developer activity, understand what you're looking at. Different metrics answer different questions:
| Metric | What it measures | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Active Developers | Number of people who have submitted code at least once in an ecosystem | Reflects the base of the ecosystem's developers |
| Code Commits | Frequency and total volume of code updates | Reflects development pace and iteration speed |
| Share of Experienced Developers (2+ years) | Proportion of long-term contributors | Reflects ecosystem quality and stability |
The share of experienced developers is particularly critical—experienced developers (2+ years of crypto development) contribute around 70% of code commits. Though smaller in number, they represent the core productivity of the ecosystem.
What "done" looks like: You understand what each of these three metrics means and won't equate "commits dropped" with "developers all left."
Step 2: Use the Electric Capital Developer Report—see the annual landscape
The annual Web3 Developer Report by Electric Capital is the most authoritative reference in this space, covering 902 million code commits across 1.7 million repositories.
How to use it:
Visit developerreport.com to view the latest report.
Focus on these dimensions:
| Data dimension | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Total developer count | Monthly active developer numbers for the target chain and year-over-year change |
| Inflow of new developers | How many new developers are choosing this chain for their first project |
| Share of multi-chain developers | How many developers are working on multiple chains simultaneously |
| Experienced developer trends | Whether the number of developers with 2+ years of experience is growing or declining |
Current reference data (2026):
As of early 2026, around 32,000 developers were active in the crypto open-source space.
Ethereum remains the ecosystem with the most monthly active developers on every continent, with Solana second.
In 2024, Solana attracted the most new developers (7,625), an 83% year-over-year increase.
What "done" looks like: You can find the target chain's total developer count and year-over-year trend in the report.
Step 3: Use Artemis—see real-time development activity trends
If you need more real-time data (rather than an annual report), Artemis is one of the handiest tools. It offers daily development activity tracking covering 141+ ecosystems, including code commits, active developers, protocol revenue, and other multi-dimensional metrics.
How to use it:
Access the Artemis platform (a free Lite plan is available).
In the Dashboard, select the new public chain you're interested in.
Check these data points:
Weekly code commits: shows changes in the development pace
Weekly active developers: shows the trend in the number of people participating in development
Comparison feature: side-by-side comparison of the target chain with benchmark chains like Ethereum and Solana
Current reference data (March 2026):
Industry-wide weekly code commits dropped from a peak of about 850,000 in early 2025 to around 210,000, a decline of about 75%.
Weekly active developers fell from about 9,000 to around 4,600.
This is an industry-wide trend; if the target chain declined less than its peers during this period, that would be a signal of resilience.
What "done" looks like: You can see the target chain's code commit trend chart for the last 30 days on Artemis and determine whether it is "growing against the trend" or "falling with the broader market."
Step 4: Use Token Terminal—see the link between development activity and financial metrics
A high number of developers doesn't guarantee ecosystem health; you also need to see whether this development activity translates into real protocol revenue. Token Terminal brings on-chain financial data and open-source code activity together.
How to use it:
Search for the target chain on Token Terminal.
Overlay the development activity and protocol revenue charts.
If both are growing in the same direction → development activity has commercial backing.
If development activity is high but revenue is stagnant → it could be that "developers are building, but users are still on the sidelines."
What "done" looks like: You can describe the degree of alignment between the target chain's developer activity and its protocol revenue.
Step 5: Use DevAlpha MCP—check the ecosystem's "real demand" signals (optional)
If you want to go further—for example, to see whether the target chain has genuine capital and user demand—you can use DevAlpha MCP. This is a tool that lets AI agents access builder intelligence data, covering metrics for 50+ ecosystems, including TVL, developer activity, hackathons, bounties, and more.
Core tools:
| Tool | Use case |
|---|---|
| compare_chains | Rank chains by TVL, fees, developer activity |
| get_developer_activity | Developer activity trends for a specific chain |
| search_opportunities | Search for hackathons, bounties, grant opportunities |
| recommend_chain | Recommend the most suitable chain based on your use case |
Some basic command-line ability is required; if you're not comfortable with that, stick with the previous tools first.
Common pitfalls
"High commit count = lots of developers": Code commit volume can be skewed by a few high-frequency developers. Cross-check with the number of active developers.
"New developers flowing in = ecosystem is healthy": New developers are the future, but retention rate is key. If the number of monthly active developers is stable but fewer new developers are entering, the ecosystem may be entering a "developer growth bottleneck."
"Only look at total developer count, ignoring the distribution": Developers are concentrated in a few top chains; small and mid-size chains may only have dozens of active developers. Comparing with chains of a similar size is more meaningful.
Risk note
The data from the tools above comes from open-source code repositories; developers in closed-source projects cannot be counted—this may underestimate the actual development scale of some chains.
Data is a lagging indicator: an annual report reflects the situation over the past 12 months and cannot be used directly for short-term decisions.
Next step: Pick a new public chain you want to analyze. First, open Electric Capital's developer report and check its ranking in the annual data; then switch to Artemis to see the daily development activity trend for the last 30 days; finally use Token Terminal to confirm whether its protocol revenue is growing in tandem. Going through these three dimensions will take about 30 minutes and can help you form a basic assessment of an ecosystem's development health.
