By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira further depreciated against the United States Dollar at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday by 0.66 per cent or N4 amid demand for stablecoins for the purchase of cryptos, which are witnessing distress at the moment.
Analysis by Business Post indicated that the Naira was exchanged with the American currency at the market window yesterday on the average at N608/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N604/$1.
The rise in inflation in the US is already affecting the cryptocurrency market. The US Consumer Price Index was up 8.3 per cent in the 12 months ended in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, slightly higher than had predicted. This means prices still increased, but at a slower pace than in previous months, especially in March at 8.5 per cent.
This triggered a heavy crash in an already volatile market with all the 10 benchmarked tokens closing lower.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded below $30,000 with an 8.9 per cent loss to settle at $28,458.41, Solana (SOL) hurtled by 31.1 per cent to $45.81, Cardano (ADA) crashed by 26.8 per cent to sell at $0.4607, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 26.7 per cent to $0.0802, while Ripple (XRP) recorded a 25.5 per cent slide to trade at $0.3843.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) dropped 20.9 per cent to trade at $63.05, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 19.7 per cent fall to quote at $255.69, TerraUSD (UST) declined by 16.3 per cent to sell at $0.6911, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 15.5 per cent to $1,995.11, while US Dollar Tether (USDT) drowned by 0.5 per cent to settle at $0.9948.
Meanwhile, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the forex market at the midweek session, the local currency depreciated against the greenback by 0.12 per cent or 50 kobo to trade at N418.75/$1 compared with the previous day’s rate of N418.25/$1.
This happened amid a decline in the FX turnover for the day by 50.6 per cent or $118.76 million to $115.78 million from the $234.54 million reported a day earlier.
At the spot market, the domestic currency appreciated by 33 kobo against the Pound Sterling to close at N514.42/£1 compared to the previously traded rate of N514.09/£1 and against the Euro, it depreciated by 21 kobo to close at N438.91/€1 in contrast to Tuesday’s value of N438.70/€1.