Economy
Crypto Exchanges – How to Choose the Right One
With the prevalence of cryptocurrencies in the digital age, many businesses and investors regularly use the crypto market to build their portfolios and gradually amass a passive income. However, due to the volatility of the market and fluctuations in prices, trading can be risky, as prospectors may lose all their deposited funds with no reward. Crypto exchanges operate as platforms to help you navigate the cryptocurrency market.
Qualities of a Digital Currency Exchange
These facilities make accessing the crypto market more convenient for you. Before exchanges existed, you had to use a command line and type in a command to send crypto coins to your peers. Over time, developers designed user interfaces to make the process easier as cryptocurrency acquired a mass audience of people interested in the cryptoverse and performing related transactions.
Financial Security
Whether you want to buy Bitcoin in Nigeria or another digital coin, you must be cautious of scams and frauds that could mislead you into giving away your personal information. Secure exchanges will offer transparent services and be open about what they contribute and how they use your sensitive information. They will provide a privacy policy describing what details they employ and for what purpose. Secondly, legit services typically have a physical address for their headquarters. You will know the legal ramifications of your expenditures and how to confront issues if you have the address. Otherwise, you will lose money and need to understand where it went.
Reputable Services
The best cryptocurrency exchanges will have positive reviews with testimonies about the offered services. Remember, you need to be able to trust this financial institution before you confide your private data, including identifiable and monetary information, in it. What have other users said about the platform’s security? How is the exchange’s customer service? Reviews should be able to answer your questions about the facility and whether you should invest in it.
Pairs and Transaction Fees
Some platforms offer access to hundreds of pairs, while others provide trading options for only a few. The platform you choose depends on your needs and how diverse you want your portfolio to be.
Remember that most exchanges may incur transaction fees depending on the transaction size, network-related costs, and your account activity. Because crypto transactions occur on the blockchain, blockchain participants require a processing fee for their work on the chain. Some exchanges may charge fees for the transaction, so if you plan to trade daily, consider one with a fair payment.
ChangeNOW As an Effective Service
Founded in 2017, ChangeNOW is a quick and efficient exchange facility. Its headquarters are in Seychelles, and it is operated by proficient blockchain developers. It has over 70,000 trading pairs and 700 coins available with no trading limits. You may perform a high-value transaction at will, and ChangeNOW will process it as swiftly as possible. Typically, its processing speed is between 5 and 20 minutes, but larger blocks take longer to convert.
As a non-custodial exchange service, ChangeNOW has your personal safety and financial protection in mind because it does not require registering to use its services. Instead, you only need a crypto wallet and its payout address to hold your assets. In this way, you do not need to worry about financial theft while using the platform. Its servers do not store identifiable information; you remain anonymous with ChangeNOW.
When you are ready to make a crypto trade, ChangeNOW finds and offers the best exchange rate, ensuring you get the best price. Multiple trading platforms like Binance and Kucoin have integrated ChangeNOW to provide these rates. With any swap, the platform only charges network or mining fees; it does not impose service fees.
In addition to swapping cryptocurrency pairs, you can buy crypto through ChangeNOW using fiat currency. The platform uses Simplex, a third party, to handle these transactions so you can utilize Visa, Mastercard, and other card providers to purchase crypto. Keep in mind network fees apply to these transactions depending on the currency.
The Bottom Line
Do your research before officially choosing a platform, and be aware of the associated risks with crypto trading. If hackers compromise a service, your funds may disappear. However, knowing an exchange’s trustworthiness and authenticity can help you decide how secure your digital assets will be.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, said the removal of petrol subsidy saved Nigeria N15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.
Mr Oyedele disclosed this on Wednesday at a press conference, where he provided a breakdown of the financial impact of the federal government’s economic reforms under President Bola Tinubu, the same day that the campaign for the 2027 presidential elections commenced.
He said the subsidy savings were reflected in the resources available to the federation, although they did not appear as a separate credit to the federation account under the description “subsidy savings”.
“Between June 2023 and December 2025, subsidy savings mobilised the sum of N15.8 trillion in resources for the federation.
“Many people will say, where is the subsidy savings? As a matter of fact, there wasn’t any alert to the Federation Account with the description ‘subsidy savings’,” Mr Oyedele said.
According to the minister, the federal government received N5.4 trillion of the N15.8 trillion, while N10.4 trillion was shared among state and local governments through the Federation Account.
Mr Oyedele said the government’s overall financial position during the period also reflected increased independent revenue and borrowing to fund its expenditure.
He said the federal government generated N3.1 trillion in incremental independent revenue, largely from remittances by government-owned entities and increased surpluses from government agencies.
The government also borrowed an additional N11.9 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.
“People will say, you said you have exceeded your revenue, why are you still borrowing?” Mr Oyedele said, “The additional borrowing that the federal government took for that period of time, June 2023 to December 2025, amounted to N11.9 trillion.”
According to him, the combination of incremental independent revenue and additional borrowing brought the Federal Government’s incremental resources during the period to N20.4 trillion.
However, he said total incremental expenditure stood at N30.64 trillion.
Mr Oyedele said the figures demonstrated the fiscal implications of the reforms, which were introduced to address long-standing economic distortions and reduce pressure on government finances.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu has embarked on major reforms to address age-long economic challenges,” he said.
He identified the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market as key measures undertaken by the administration.
“The removal of fuel subsidy, which was quietly bankrupting the country, and the unification of an exchange rate system that had become a source of distortion and corruption rather than stability.
“Those decisions came at a cost, and we are not here to implement otherwise. What does reform cost?” Mr Oyedele questioned.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange weakened further by 1.75 per cent on Tuesday, August 18, triggered by losses recorded by the duo of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and Food Concepts Plc.
CSCS Plc, the Nigerian securities depository company, lost N8.48 to settle at N90.02 per share compared with the previous value of N98.50 per share, while Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of fast food franchise, Chicken Republic, dropped 15 Kobo to end at N2.35 per unit versus N2.50 per unit.
Consequently, the NASD Security Index (NSI) further declined by 77.26 points to 4,348.76 points from Monday’s 4,426.02 points, while the market capitalisation dipped by N46.37 billion to N2.610 trillion from N2.656 trillion.
During the session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors slumped by 82.6 per cent to 113,728 units from the previous session’s 652,081 units, and the value of securities slid by 12.4 per cent to N9.4 million from the preceding day’s N10.7 million, while the number of deals increased by 47.6 per cent to 31 deals from 21 deals.
Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units traded for N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units sold for N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 79.7 million units transacted for N5.8 billion.
GNI Plc was also the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, trailed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units exchanged for N415.7 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Nigerian Naira further appreciated against the US Dollar by N6.22 or 0.46 per cent in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Tuesday, August 18, to N1,343.32/$1 from the previous rate of N1,349.54/$1.
This occurred amid steady growth in Nigeria’s external reserves, rising to $52.32 billion as of August 17, 2026, giving the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) enough arsenal to defend the local currency when the need arises in the FX market.
Also, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N10.85 to close at N1,819.26/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,830.11/£1, and gained N8.55 on the Euro to sell at N1,556.24/€1 versus Monday’s N1,564.79/€1.
In the same vein, the Naira appreciated against the Dollar in the black market during the trading session by N5 to quote at N1,390/$1, in contrast to the N1,395/$1 it was traded a day earlier, and strengthened at the GTBank forex desk by N7 to N1,357/$1 from N1,364/$1.
NAFEM interbank FX turnover declined as financial institutions’ activities moderated. Interbank FX turnover dropped by 16.6 per cent to $364.709 million from $437.529 million, with the number of deals down by 39.3 per cent to 108 deals from 178 deals.
As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $64,120.36, as most other major cryptocurrencies closed in the green amid a global selloff in chip stocks.
An Asian semiconductor gauge dropped more than 3 per cent, following a 5 per cent slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Tuesday, its worst session since late July, while investors await US Federal Reserve minutes and are widely expecting no rate change in September.
Solana (SOL) gained 1.4 per cent to sell at $76.66, Cardano (ADA) added 0.9 per cent to trade at $0.1748, Ethereum (ETH) grew by 0.6 per cent to $1,905.54, Ripple (XRP) appreciated by 0.4 per cent to sell at $0.9986, TRON (TRX) improved by 0.3 per cent to $0.3327, and Dogecoin (DOGE) soared by 0.2 per cent to $0.0698.
However, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to $600.88, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.
