Solana (SOL) was the top ecosystem choice this year for new developers, according to a recent report.

Researchers at the venture firm Electric Capital note that 39,148 new developers explored the crypto space in 2024.

The firm also says that 2024 was the first year since 2016 that any ecosystem besides Ethereum (ETH) ranked first among the new developer cohort, with 7,625 new devs choosing Solana, compared to 6,456 for Ethereum.

Solana also leads in terms of decentralized exchange (DEX) usage, capturing 81% of DEX transactions and ranking the highest in terms of the number of unique trading wallets. Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, ranked second in unique trading wallets.

Ethereum still remains the top ecosystem for development overall, ranking number one across every continent. Solana ranked second.

Electric Capital says developer numbers are a “leading indicator of value creation.”

“Developers build apps that deliver value to users. Killer apps attract customers. New customers bring more developers. Because crypto is significantly open source, we have an unprecedented ability to measure this developer-value creation flywheel in a rapidly evolving industry.”

Solana’s native asset, SOL, is trading at $227.70 at time of writing. The 5th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is down more than 3% in the past 24 hours.