It's Wednesday, May 31st, 20203, and this is Markets Daily from CoinDesk.

I'm Adam B. Levine, here again with your Daily News Roundup.

On today, we're talking Bitcoin, economic headwinds, the latest headlines, and more.

And just a reminder, CoinDesk is a news source and does not provide investment advice.

Bitcoin, Ether, and most other risk assets are down in markets showing almost universally lower prices.

BTC ran into selling pressure earlier this morning after a top U.S. Federal Reserve official said there's no compelling case to halt the central bank's rate hike cycle. The Fed's

historic string of increases to the core interest rate, up a staggering 1,900% in just the last

year, along with its reverberations through global markets, has been a primary driver of many

potential catastrophes that have only been staved off by bailouts or other

interventions. For example, pension funds nearly collapsed in the UK back in October of last year,

the ongoing monetary policy-induced banking crisis of 2023, not to mention, of course,

the continued bear market and cryptocurrency specifically and risk assets more broadly.

Quote, I don't really see a compelling reason to pause.

Federal Reserve Bank

of Cleveland President Loretta Mester told the F.T. in an interview published this morning. She

continued, I would see more of a compelling case for bringing the rates up and then holding

for a while until you get less uncertain about where the economy is going, end quote. Her remarks

help send the U.S. dollar higher and risk assets lower. And it's worth noting that

she's not wrong. Rates should be higher. But the thing that's glossed over is that rates should

always have been higher. And to the extent that they were lowered to the degree that they were,

that should have been an extremely temporary phenomenon to avoid the exact consequences

the critics at the time predicted and which dominate our world today. This story reminded me

...