Naira Appreciates to N1,552/$1 as Trump-Musk Feud Crashes Crypto Market

By Adedapo Adesanya

Recent policy directions of the Nigerian authorities, including boosting local production, easing foreign exchange (FX) pressure, and the strengthening of non-oil exports have continued to boost the value of the Naira to the US Dollar in the various segments of the forex market.

At the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, June 5, the local currency gained N13.99 or 0.85 per cent against the greenback to sell for N1,552.62/$1 compared with the preceding day’s N1,565.95/$1.

The Nigerian Naira also appreciated against the Pound Sterling in the same market window by N11.30 to quote at N2,111.62/£1 from N2,122.92/£1, but weakened on the Euro by N6.96 to settle at N1,781.58/€1 versus Wednesday’s value of N1,788.54/€1.

Yesterday was the last trading session of this week because of the Eid-el-Kabir holiday on Friday (June 6) and Monday (June 9).

In the parallel market, the domestic currency traded flat against the United States currency on Thursday at N1,610/$1.

As for the crypto market, it crashed yesterday as a result of the new feud between President Donald Trump of the US and his now-former ally and tech billionaire, Mr Elon Musk.

President Trump’s signature Big Beautiful Bill precipitated an epic fallout between the two, leading to revelations that have spooked the crypto market.

Asked about Mr Musk’s criticism of the bill, the US president told reporters: “Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more,” and said he was “very disappointed in Elon.” This led Mr Musk to post on X denying Mr Trump’s statement.

This led to further posts that stepped up his feud with the president claiming that without him Mr Trump would have “lost the election” and lamented the ingratitude before the president followed up by threatening to terminate the South African’s government subsidies and contracts, prompting a return threat from the SpaceX boss to decommission the Dragon spacecraft (which brought home astronauts stuck on the ISS for months), but he later rescinded the threat.

Mr Musk also suggested President Trump should be impeached and that Vice President JD Vance should replace his principal and made serious allegations.

This development crumbled the price of Mr Musk-backed Dogecoin (DOGE) by 7.2 per cent to $0.1756, as Ethereum (ETH) declined by 5.8 per cent to $2,461.14, and Cardano (ADA) tumbled by 5.7 per cent to $0.6411.

Further, Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 4.4 per cent to $84.07, Binance Coin (BNB) lost 4.1 per cent to sell for $679.40, Solana (SOL) slumped by 3.5 per cent to $147.52, Ripple (XRP) depleted by 3.1 per cent to $2.12, and Bitcoin (BTC) slipped by 1.3 per cent to $103,255.76, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.