Developers continue to dive into the crypto space

Surveyed builders show most interest in smart contract security and account abstraction

The crypto world is shaky right now. Fewer checks are being written, and regulatory pressure in the U.S. as well as economic uncertainty globally are casting a shadow on the sector as a whole. But the developer space is showing signs of promise.

According to Alchemy’s latest Web3 Development Report, web3 developer activity continued to grow in the second quarter, both year on year and quarter on quarter. Ethereum and crypto wallet software developer kits (SDKs) saw 26.8 million and 11.1 million installations in the second quarter, respectively.

The market is seeing some signs of recovery: Ethereum’s price has increased 53.7%, to about $1,850, since the beginning of the year, potentially sparking greater interest.

To some, it feels like 2019 all over again, where outsiders see crypto solely as token prices and market movements and insiders see a view of a rapidly growing web3 ecosystem. “We are seeing the signs both in the number of devs contributing to projects, launching web3 apps/games, and in on-chain data, which is up massively compared to metrics just six months ago,” said Jack O’Holleran, CEO of Skale Labs, a multichain network.

Other layer-2 blockchains also saw massive gains last quarter. About 5.9 million smart contracts were created in Q2 on the Ethereum blockchain and on layer-2 blockchains like Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon, among others.

But other subsectors of the crypto industry haven’t been as fortunate. NFT trading volume and users declined about 42% and 33%, respectively, quarter over quarter. Decentralized finance trading volume fell 27%, though users increased 35%, during the same period, the report found.

The increase in DeFi users “speaks to the stickiness” of the projects and products being built in that subsector, Blake Tandowsky, growth analyst at Alchemy, told TechCrunch+. “Even though prices might not be up and every celebrity isn’t uploading NFTs as profile pictures, there are developers who are super interested in the space,” he said.

If past cycles can predict the future, then things are looking up for crypto.