Bitcoin miners had less than 48 hours to enjoy Bitcoin’s 20% price hike as mining difficulty bit into rewards.

Bitcoin’s self-referential difficulty adjustment kicked into gear Sunday with a 10.2% increase. The change followed a -3% drawdown two weeks previously, on January 2. At 37.59 T, Bitcoin’s difficulty is now again at an all time high.

Hashprice–a metric for assigning revenue per unit of hashrate–briefly set a three month record at $0.076/TH before dropping to $0.071/TH, according to Hashrate Index. Hashprice is up 20% since January 1.

The price pump is a welcome site following three months of consistent price drops and unfavorable difficulty swings. Outside of December’s -7.3% downwing–the largest in 2022 brought on by a cold snap in Texas–difficulty has been up and to the right.

Industry veterans aren't holding their breath that conditions stay cherry. Thin weekend markets may have induced the volatile price change. Indeed, Kaiko Research notes that market liquidity across 17 surveyed exchange order books “remains low.”

Moreover, many distressed miners continue to mine Bitcoin. Core Scientific mined 1,435 BTC in December while filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, while Argo Blockchain mined throughout its sale of its flagship site Helios in Dickens County, Texas.

There won’t be any large drops in mining difficulty as long as the big players continue to operate. And hope alone can’t sustain Bitcoin’s price above $20,000. Miners must continue to trim expenses, squeeze out hashrate and increase margins at all costs.