Asia has overtaken North America as the leading region for cryptocurrency and blockchain development talent, according to a recent report. In 2024, Asia’s share of cryptocurrency developers rose to 32%, up from 13% in 2015, making it the top region for developer talent in the industry.
Over the same period, North America’s share of developers effectively halved, dropping to 24% from 44% in 2015. Electric Capital general partner Maria Shen highlighted this trend in an October 30 post, noting, “Asia is now #1 for crypto devs. The US is losing market share. Crypto impacts every state in the US—crypto should be non-partisan.”
The geographic distribution of crypto developers often signals which regions are poised to drive future blockchain innovation. A growing developer base in any region is a positive indicator of mass adoption of blockchain technology, as it suggests increased development of blockchain-based consumer applications.
Despite 81% of all blockchain developers now residing outside of the United States, the US still holds the highest number of developers globally. Approximately 18.8% of all crypto developers are based in the US, followed by India at 11.8%, and the United Kingdom at 4.2%.
Within the United States, 22.3% of developers live in California, while 13.7% reside in New York. The majority—64%—of US developers live outside of these two states. However, the US has seen a more than 51% drop in its share of developers since 2015, despite the industry’s continued growth.
The researchers analyzed over 200 million crypto-related GitHub commits across 350,000 repositories, sourcing geographical data from over 110,000 developer wallets with self-reported locations. Institutional interest in cryptocurrencies has also been on the rise in Asia. For example, in South Korea, the number of crypto investors rose by 21% in the first half of 2024, driving the cumulative operational profits of the top 21 local centralized exchanges to $4.2 billion—a year-on-year increase of 106%.