Ethereum developer interest hit new all-time highs in 2023 despite a bear market

Solana, Polygon, Optimism and other blockchains also saw increased developer interest

The global web3 developer space grew in 2023, according to a new report, regardless of the ongoing bear crypto market and regulatory headwinds in the U.S.

It was especially a home run for Ethereum, one of the most well-known layer-1 blockchains. The blockchain saw software developer kit (SDK) installs increase 31% year over year to 106.4 million downloads in 2023, up from 81.4 million in 2022, according to Alchemy’s Web3 Development Report for 2023.

The total Ethereum SDK installs have increased consecutively over the past five years, the report said. The number included SDK packages like ethers, web3, hardhat, truffle, foundry, eth, alchemy-sdk, viem, userops and wagmi. In 2022, there was an overall increase in developer activity. A separate report by Electric Capital found that the number of monthly active crypto developers declined 25% last year.

“It’s been great to see confirmation of the cliché that bear markets are for building,” Jason Windawi, protocol specialist at Alchemy, told TechCrunch+. “During the depths [of the downturn] it was easy to wonder if that’s true; we knew it was, but it’s good to have this data to show that.”