Economy
Cryptos Soar as US Regulators Move to Halt Bank Crisis
By Adedapo Adesanya
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) were up on Monday morning after the United States government stepped in to avert one of the worst banking crises in over a decade.
On its part, BTC was up 7.3 per cent to $22,025.84, while ETH was up 7.0 per cent to $1,575.27.
Some other cryptos were also up, including Litecoin (LTC), which has added 9.3 per cent to $75.35, Cardano (ADA) up by 8.1 per cent to $0.03315, Solana (SOL) added 5.8 per cent to $19.15, and Dogecoin (DOGE), as at press time, was up by 3.8 per cent to $0.0689.
Last Wednesday, the crypto market was faced with a lot of setbacks, starting with Silvergate Capital, a major lender to the crypto industry, saying it was winding down operations and liquidating its bank.
The market was reeling from the news when the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed on Friday in what was the biggest banking failure since the 2008 financial crisis.
The collapse of both banks, Silvergate and SVB, can be tied to the aggressive rate hikes by the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, in its bit to keep inflation around 2 per cent in the world’s largest economy.
Since both lenders put their money into US Treasuries, they have lost value as the US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. These banks have been forced to sell these bonds at a loss to shore up their capital position.
The market was then faced with the closure of a third bank, Signature Ban, a major lender in the crypto industry. This sent jitters to the broader banking sector.
To help ease this, US regulators made up of The US Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Sunday that depositors of SVB will have access to all of their money starting Monday (today).
Along with that move, the Federal Reserve also said it is creating a new Bank Term Funding Program aimed at safeguarding institutions affected by the market instability of the SVB failure.
A joint statement from the various regulators involved said there would be no bailouts and no taxpayer costs associated with any of the new plans.
“No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer,” the regulators said, adding that depositors at Signature Bank will be made whole.
In a related development, HSBC said it had agreed to acquire the UK arm of SVB for £1. The UK Treasury also said Monday that “no taxpayer money is involved, and customer deposits have been protected.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is seeking a reduction in import duty exemptions, which rose to N34 trillion, limiting its ability to increase its revenue generation threshold.
The Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that the value of import duty exemption certificate approvals increased to that level in 2025, describing the policy as one of the major factors restricting its revenue generation.
At an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Monday, Mr Adeniyi explained that government fiscal policies have continued to impact the revenue-generating capacity of the Customs Service, both positively and negatively.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
He added that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, accounted for about N34 trillion in approvals in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware due to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he noted, covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
While acknowledging the impact of the waivers on Customs revenue, Mr Adeniyi argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also on its broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, urged the federal government to establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved healthcare access.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the hearing, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Mr Sani Musa, warned that the affected chief executives must appear at the committee’s next sitting or face severe sanctions under the Senate’s rules.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.40 per cent on Monday, July 13, buoyed by buying interest in 11 Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and UBN Property Plc, which offset the profit-taking in Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of Chicken Republic.
11 Plc gained N20.69 to end at N227.64 per share compared with last Friday’s price of N206.95 per share, CSCS Plc grew by N1.83 to N91.48 per unit from N89.65 per unit, and UBN Property Plc added 1 Kobo to sell at N1.81 per share versus N1.80 per share.
On the flip side, Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 24 Kobo to close at N2.45 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N2.69 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N9.2 billion to N2.587 trillion from N2.578 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 15.33 points to 4,311.67 points from 4,296.34 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 615.9 per cent to 9.1 million units from the previous 1.3 million units, and the value of securities rose by 997.1 per cent to N320.4 million from the preceding session’s N29.2 million, while the number of deals decreased by 12.5 per cent to 28 deals from last Friday’s 32 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units exchanged for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
