Bitcoin, Ethereum, Others Appreciate amid Renewed Interest

By Adedapo Adesanya

Renewed interest in cryptocurrency helped the market regain its feet on Monday after last week’s scare, which forced investors to offload the digital assets.

The selloff witnessed lately was triggered by fears that the United States Federal Reserve would come up with a tighter monetary policy this week.

But yesterday, the market was calm as seven of the 10 tokens monitored by Business Post across the various trading platforms closed positive, with Bitcoin (BTC) gaining 5.9 per cent to close at N21,279,581.03.

Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 2.9 per cent to sell at N64,092.87, Ethereum (ETH) made a 1.8 per cent appreciation to close at N1,421,449.49, while US Dollar Tether (USDT) improved by 1.5 per cent to sell for N586.56.

In addition, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 0.6 per cent to close at N352.24, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 0.3 per cent to quote at N81.59, while Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a gain of 0.1 per cent to trade at N154,299.88.

On the other hand, Dash (DASH) fell by 3.7 per cent to trade at N52,686.71, Tron (TRX) depreciated by 3.2 per cent to sell at N31.35, while Cardano (ADA) depleted by 1.1 per cent to close at N630.39.

Meanwhile, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market in Nigeria, the Naira traded bearish on the first day of this week, losing 0.09 per cent or 38 kobo to trade exchange against the Dollar at N416.38/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N416/$1.

This occurred amid a decline in the demand for forex at the market window, with the turnover for the day at $136.9 million, 3.8 per cent or $5.5 million lower than the $142.42 million recorded last Friday.

Also, the domestic currency suffered a loss of 11 kobo against the greenback at the interbank segment of the market, trading at N415.53/$1 at the close of business on Monday compared with N415.53/$1 of the previous session.

But against the Pound Sterling, the Naira appreciated by N2.69 yesterday to close at N560.69/£1 in contrast to the previous N563.38/£1, while against the Euro, the local currency gained 88 kobo to close at N470/€1 versus last Friday’s N470.88/€1.