- Ethereum’s search decline is slightly worse than Bitcoin’s.
- Roughly 96% of search interest originating from the United States has disappeared.
- A glance at ETH’s developer count reveals a silver lining for Ethereum.
Nearly two years on from Ethereum’s all-time high, Google search interest for the No.1 altcoin has plunged 96%.
Ethereum Popularity Nosedives Along with the ETH Price
Search interest for the most well-known alternative to Bitcoin peaked during January 2018’s bull-run. The price of ETH topped out at just under $1,500 two years ago. Since then, both its search volume and coin price have plummeted.
Today, Ethereum search interest stands at just 4% of its all-time high. Meanwhile, its coin price, currently in the $140 range, amounts to 11% of its former peak.
Bitcoin Hasn’t Fared Much Better
Bitcoin didn’t fare much better during the past 24 months, with a 94% decline in search interest among Google’s users. BTC’s coin price held more traction, with a 65% drop in the same time period.
Ethereum makes for an interesting point of analysis due to its position as the second most well-known cryptocurrency. But despite the apparent loss of interest according to Google Trends, Ethereum remains the favorite cryptocurrency of blockchain developers.
Ethereum Still King Among Developers
Search trends and price action only tell part of the story. According to recent research by Electric Capital, Ethereum has four times more developers than the next largest blockchain ecosystem: Bitcoin.
Analysis conducted in the autumn of this year showed Ethereum had attracted 18% of all open-source developers working in blockchain. That amounts to around 216 developers contributing to Ethereum’s code every month.
Ethereum has the biggest developer team in crypto. On average, 216 developers contribute code every month to Ethereum’s repos. This is undercounting the number of Ethereum developers since we do not include ecosystem projects like Truffle.
Bitcoin Has a ‘Healthy’ Ecosystem
Bitcoin, by comparison, has around 50 developers adding to its code on a monthly basis, according to Electric Capital.
Bitcoin’s developer ecosystem is very healthy 10 years after launch. On average, more than 50 developers per month contribute to Bitcoin’s repos. This is undercounting the number of Bitcoin developers since we do not include ecosystem projects like wallets.
Of all the developers working in blockchain at the time of the research, 50% could be found in projects within the market cap top 100. That means the rest are scattered across the remaining 2,700 public coins included in the study.
Despite the market downturn, the number of full-time devs working in the blockchain space actually doubled moving into 2019.
This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.
