ICP has taken the top spot in crypto’s development activity rankings for the past 30 days, according to Chainspect. The platform, built by DFINITY, stands out not just for the volume of developer movement but for the robustness of its infrastructure. It leads with a Nakamoto coefficient of 366, pointing to a high degree of decentralisation—more than any other blockchain in the same league.
In plain terms, that means ICP is harder to censor, tamper with or control. It has more independent validators running the network than any other chain. The high validator count also boosts resilience, particularly important in a climate where many blockchains still rely heavily on centralised control or opaque node operators.
On performance, the numbers hold up too. ICP clocks an average of 1,127 transactions per second in live conditions, with bursts of activity peaking at 25,621 TPS. That throughput is based on actual usage, not lab tests or simulations. It’s worth noting that Solana often boasts higher figures, but many in the industry raise questions about how those stats are calculated. Some suspect they reflect internal activity within the ecosystem rather than external transactions, which makes the comparison murky.
For ICP, the figures aren’t the full story, but they are telling. Chainspect’s ranking isn’t about marketing or hype. It’s based on consistent GitHub development, changes to public repositories, and the kind of building activity that reflects ongoing commitment from a project’s core and community developers. ICP sitting at the top of that chart means its developers aren’t standing still.
Chainlink and Filecoin round out the top three, while Cardano and Starknet have seen a drop in relative rank. Filecoin’s rise is likely linked to its push on decentralised storage and the upcoming introduction of more programmable features on its network. Chainlink remains a mainstay due to its continued role as infrastructure glue between various blockchain ecosystems.
Also on the rise are Sui and DeepBook, both showing strong development upticks. Avalanche is back in the mix too, while Polkadot and Kusama have dropped slightly, sharing a tied ninth spot.
The wider takeaway here isn’t just about who’s building the most. It’s about what’s being built—and whether it can be trusted. As Chainspect puts it, “performance means nothing without trust.” A protocol can claim all the throughput in the world, but if a handful of players control the network or if validators can be switched off with a phone call, it’s not the kind of infrastructure you want to depend on.
ICP has often positioned itself as an alternative to Web2 cloud computing. It offers the ability to run smart contracts directly on-chain, including entire apps, websites, and backends. This makes it more than a settlement layer or bridge—it functions more like a full-stack environment. While that may sound like a technical distinction, it’s actually one of the core reasons its community points to the project as more future-proof than others.
There’s also a cultural divide in play. Some chains chase partnerships, VC hype, and speculative gains. ICP’s development ecosystem has quietly grown, backed by slow, open engineering and public scrutiny of performance claims. In a year when regulatory interest in decentralised systems has risen, that transparency may count for more than ever.
Still, the question for most users remains the same: which networks are worth building on? If you’re a developer, decentralisation doesn’t just protect the end user—it protects you. If a network is too tightly controlled, your app could get censored, downranked, or blocked. That’s where the Nakamoto coefficient becomes more than a niche metric. It’s a measure of your project’s independence from centralised gatekeepers.
And in that department, ICP currently leads. Whether it can maintain the momentum will depend on more than one ranking or chart. But for now, the message is clear: real throughput, real decentralisation, and a community that continues to build.
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