Bitcoin is holding steady at $9,300. It’s a good sign that bitcoin can remain firm over the weekend, and $10,000 may not be too far off the mark.

The largest rewards are now being witnessed in mining. It was recently speculated how profitable mining could truly be if bitcoin’s price remained under $8,600. Figures like Fundstrat’s Tom Lee were discussing the notion of bitcoin mining losing full profitability, but now bitcoin stands $700 above the mentioned position.

A few weeks ago, for example, a 1080ti GPU from Nvidia was earning about eight dollars a day. That meant a miner could allegedly earn their investment(s) back in just under four months. It was an exorbitantly long time to wait to see profit. At the time, bitcoin was hovering around the $6,600 range, and rewards for mining had ultimately come to a crashing halt.

From there, the 1080ti’s earnings dropped to $1.40 a day before incurring a slight rise to $2.40 per day, and some believe the fall in mining profits was more an indicator of where bitcoin’s price would go – not vice versa. Typically, it’s the price of a coin that decides how its mining future will appear, but in the case of bitcoin, reward amounts can be very useful indicators of whether the price will ultimately swing up or down. The closer these indicators are to “basic demand and supply fundamentals,” the better.

Mining rewards are usually tied to the general demand of a coin. When a demand outdoes a supply, the rewards swell up almost immediately, and can be sensitive indicators of potential bullish behavior for bitcoin’s price trends.

However, growing demand can also mean less flexible coin supplies, which may have massive repercussions on the price. Wherever the mining rewards turn, the price will usually follow.

The good news is that bitcoin’s price is up 27 percent since the start of April. While regulation is still a looming threat, analysts believe the future of cryptocurrencies remains promising, and that the present bull run is not likely to dwindle in the coming days.

“Bitcoin’s price has shown resilience multiple times this year when it has dropped below $7,000, even in the wake of negative events such as India’s recent ban on banks engaging in cryptocurrency-related activity, Mt. Gox trustee sales, and tax-related sell-offs,” commented Garrick Hileman, co-founder of cryptocurrency and data research firm Mosaic.io. “Positive drivers include reports that major financial institutions, such as Barclays, are getting more serious about entering the crypto space.”

Glen Goodman – bitcoin analyst and author of the upcoming book The Crypto Trader – feels that while it’s somewhat hard to label present maneuvers as part of a legit bull run, bitcoin is more than likely to strike higher figures this coming May.

“The market may have slumped this year, but crypto technologies have quietly continued to improve in the background,” explained Goodman. “Bitcoin cash (the popular bitcoin alternative) has already more than doubled in price this month. I think it’s still a bit early to declare the dawn of a new bull market, but we’re seeing more optimism in the crypto community than we’ve seen in months.”