By Adedapo Adesanya
For the fourth consecutive session, the Naira depreciated at the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday by 0.34 per cent or N2 against the United States Dollar.
The decision of the Federal Reserve to raise the interest rate yesterday contributed to the pressure on the Nigerian currency at the P2P arm of the forex market, which became an alternative exchange rate window for Nigerians after Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) prohibited financial institutions in the country from having anything to do with cryptocurrencies.
At the market segment on Wednesday, the Naira was exchange to the Dollar at N581/$1 compared with N579/$1 it was traded at the preceding session.
But at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the forex market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar remained unchanged at the midweek session at N416.50/$1. The local currency has maintained stability against its American counterpart for the past three trading days.
However, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling at the spot market on Wednesday by N1.54 to settle at N545.26/£1 compared with the preceding day’s N54372/£1 and against the Euro, it lost 71 kobo to close at 458.56/€1 in comparison to the preceding session’s N457.85/€1.
A look at the crypto market showed that prices jumped yesterday following the news from the United States, with Solana (SOL) rising by 7.0 per cent to sell at N52,833.22 and Cardano (ADA) appreciating by 5.9 per cent to trade at N510.91.
Ethereum (ETH) jumped by 5.5 per cent to sell at N1,626,090.11, Bitcoin (BTC) went up by 4.8 per cent to N24,218,478.60, Ripple (XRP) rose by 4.1 per cent to N477.29, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 3.7 per cent to trade N70.36, Binance Coin (BNB) improved by 3.5 per cent to trade at N159,459.25, Dash (DASH) gained 3.3 per cent to sell at N57,836.44, Litecoin (LTC) rose by 3.2 per cent to trade at N65,926.44, while the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) expanded by 0.2 per cent to N592.95.
Dipo Olowookere