On the afternoon of the 2nd, the sector heatmap of Upbit, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, was filled entirely with blue. Based on 24-hour trading volume, all five sectors shown on the heatmap — infrastructure, smart contract platforms, DeFi, culture/entertainment, and memes — traded in negative territory.

'Uniform Decline Distribution' Draws More Attention Than Magnitude of Losses

The defining feature of this movement is its distribution rather than the size of the declines. The five sectors' losses were clustered between 1.13% and 1.51%, with the difference between the hardest-hit and least-affected sectors amounting to just 0.38 percentage points. Rather than a sharp drop concentrated in a sector hit by specific bad news, selling pressure was evenly spread across the broader market. However, the heatmap data alone does not reveal the direct cause that triggered this decline.

One-Third of Trading Volume Concentrated in Infrastructure

The size of the boxes on the heatmap reflects 24-hour trading volume. The sector occupying the largest area is infrastructure, currently down 1.29%. Converting trading volume shares based on box area on the screen, infrastructure accounts for roughly 32%, smart contract platforms about 25%, DeFi about 18%, culture/entertainment about 17%, and memes about 8%. These are approximations calculated from screen area and may differ from Upbit's internal trading volume figures.

By this measure, about one-third of the trading volume across the five displayed sectors is concentrated in infrastructure alone. Adding second-place smart contract platforms, the top two sectors account for more than half of the total. Even in a weak market phase, the structure of trading being concentrated in a few large sectors continues.

Smaller Boxes, Bigger Swings

Smart contract platforms and DeFi, ranked second and third in trading volume, posted the smallest declines among the five sectors, falling 1.16% and 1.13%, respectively. In contrast, the lower-volume culture/entertainment sector fell 1.43% and memes dropped 1.51%, pushing them down relatively more. The meme sector had the smallest box area but the largest decline.

The average decline of the top three sectors by trading volume (infrastructure, smart contract platforms, and DeFi) comes to about 1.19%, while the bottom two sectors (culture/entertainment and memes) average about 1.47%. The gap between the two groups is 0.28 percentage points. The heatmap on this day also showed the structure whereby sectors with thinner trading tend to see prices swing more from the same selling pressure.

Broad Market Under Downward Pressure of Around 1.3%

The simple average of the five sectors' declines is about 1.30%, and the weighted average reflecting the trading volume shares calculated earlier is about 1.27%. The near-identical figures suggest that the broader market is under downward pressure of around 1.3%, regardless of whether sectors have large or small trading volumes.