ARK researcher Lorenzo Valente has noted a significant decline in the number of monthly developers in the cryptocurrency industry, reaching its lowest point since 2017. Valente argues that the traditional metrics of developer numbers and activity are losing their relevance as core indicators of ecosystem health due to the substantial efficiency improvements in code generation driven by AI. He emphasizes that while developer numbers were once crucial for assessing human resource investment in L1/L2 ecosystems, the advent of AI has reduced code production costs. This shift means that fewer developers can now produce higher-quality products, challenging the traditional reliance on developer metrics as a measure of ecosystem vitality.