Naira to N418.88/$1 at I&E as Luna Rebrands to TerraClassic

By Adedapo Adesanya

The value of FX transactions at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market significantly increased by 45.4 per cent or $49.13 million on Thursday, putting pressure on the local currency.

According to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the turnover for the day was $157.46 million compared with the $108.33 million published in the preceding session.

The inability of forex traders to meet the demand of their customers, probably because of insufficient supply from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which intervenes in the market, shrank the value of the Naira against the US Dollar by 0.21 per cent or 88 kobo at the close of business.

Consequently, the exchange rate yesterday stood at N418.88/$1 in contrast to the N418.00/$1 it traded on Wednesday.

The story was not different for the domestic currency at the interbank market where it lost N4.49 against the British Pound Sterling to settle at N523.56/£1 in contrast to the previous day’s value of N519.07/£1 and against the Euro, it depreciated by N2.12 to close at N445.07/€1 compared with N443.95/€1 of the midweek session.

However, the Nigerian Naira was stable against the American currency at the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) window of the FX market yesterday as it remained unchanged at N616/$1 and at the parallel market, the Naira was exchanged with the Dollar at N603/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, things further worsened and it was not looking good for the newly rebranded TerraClassicUSD (UST), which lost 44.4 per cent to sell for $0.0543. However, the new value of TerraClassicUSD is expected to be revealed next Monday.

Solana (SOL) recorded an 11.6 per cent depreciation to sell at $42.61, Cardano (ADA) recorded a 9.6 per cent loss to finish at $0.4645, while Ethereum (ETH) fell by 9.4 per cent to trade at $1,761.64.

Furthermore, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 8.2 per cent to $302.26, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 7.9 per cent to $62.71, Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped by 5.9 per cent to trade at $0.0779, Ripple (XRP) went down by 3.2 per cent to $0.394, while Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 2.2 per cent to $29,052.74.

Yesterday, the United States Dollar Tether (USDT) closed flat at $0.999.