Commercial Fishing

Commercial Fishing – A cartoon highlights a growing tension that while Ethereum dominates blockchain development and Bitcoin dominates capital flows, the real battle may be whether blockchain can compete with AI for the next generation of developers.

More than half of blockchain projects today build on Ethereum or EVM-compatible frameworks. Around 54% of developers are active in the EVM ecosystem, with major projects like Uniswap, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism raising hundreds of millions to expand it. EVM has become the dominant standard for smart contract development, offering developers mature tooling and fast onboarding.

But capital tells a different story. Bitcoin accounts for about 63% of total crypto market capitalization, worth over $2.1 TN. Ethereum lags far behind at roughly 9%. Institutions have also favored Bitcoin, pouring over $131 BN into Bitcoin ETFs compared to only $9.9 BN into Ethereum ETFs. Many recent token launches in the EVM space have struggled: Optimism dropped around 88% from its all‑time high in March 2024 and Arbitrum is down approximately 60% in the past year .

This divergence creates a dilemma for developers. In AI, the alignment between effort and reward is clear: engineers can earn millions by building models and tools. In blockchain, developer activity thrives, but token upside remains elusive when tokens falter after launch. Without stronger alignment between developer effort and financial incentive, blockchain risks losing top developer talent to AI’s rapidly growing ecosystems.