Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya, Ahmed Rahma
The recent hammering of the Naira at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market showed no signs of slowing down.
On Tuesday, the value of the local currency against the US Dollar was further weakened and this has been linked to the recent ban on cryptocurrency in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
According to data gathered by Business Post from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the domestic currency lost N2.50 or 0.63 per cent against the greenback to trade at N401/$1 in contrast to N398.50/$1 it traded at the specialised window on Monday.
This happened despite the decline in the demand for FX during the trading session with transactions worth $49.07 million executed as against $57.78 million of the preceding session, indicating a $8.71 million or 15.1 per cent decrease in the market turnover.
Taking a look at the unregulated parallel market, the local currency continued to maintain its stability against the Dollar, trading at N480/$1 yesterday.
The local currency also closed flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro at the parallel market on Tuesday at N655/£1 and N575/£1 respectively.
There was equally no change at the Bureaux De Change (BDC) segment of the market as the Nigerian Naira traded flat against its American counterpart at N395/$1.
Likewise, at the interbank window of the forex market, the exchange rate of the Naira to the US Dollar remained unchanged at N379/$1 at the close of transactions yesterday.
But at the cryptocurrency market, renewed interests in the digital currency boosted their prices on Tuesday, according to data sourced from Quidax, a platform for trading and tracking real time transactions.
Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered banks to close down accounts associated with cryptocurrencies but analysts believe this will not be enough to shut down Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market.
Yesterday, the Bitcoin (BTC) recorded a 7.1 per cent appreciation to sell at N21,641,042.60, Ethereum (ETH) made a 2.2 per cent gain to trade at N807,001.00, while Ripple (XRP) jumped 10.9 per cent to N217.69.
Also, Litecoin (LTC) grew by 10.4 per cent to sell at 82,000, Dash (DASH) appreciated by 16.5 per cent to sell for N61,000, Tron (TRX) recorded a 14.1 per cent rise to trade at N21.05, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) gained 2.3 per cent to sell for N458.50.
