Bitcoin (BTC/USD) has dropped sharply to $329 on BTC-e, its lowest point in six weeks.

It has broken through its short-term support point of $339, which had been repeatedly tested during the previous 72 hours. As assessed, any meaningful breach would send BTC to fresh lows.

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During the past 48 hours, there has been a noticeable uptick in volume, and with it, a departure from the highly flat behavior and a signal for resumption of larger moves in the market. BTC jumped as high as $348 on volume exceeding 1000 BTC/hour, only to return to what had been a tight range of stability in the low $340’s. With the downward momentum already in place, BTC dropped by 3% during the past 8 hours. Volume averaged 250 BTC/hour during the drop, which while average these days, was a sharp increase from that observed over the weekend.

The recent slump coincides with declines in global equity and commodity markets, in tandem with a strengthening US dollar, though such moves aren’t always necessarily correlated.

Prices on BTC-e are about $5.50 (1.7%) off from those on its peers, slightly above average.