By Adedapo Adesanya
The local currency appreciated against its American counterpart at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) for the fourth straight session this week to finish stronger on Friday.
The Naira chalked up 0.3 per cent or N4.02 on the greenback yesterday to sell at N1,251.05/$1 compared with Thursday’s closing rate of N1,255.74/$1.
On the British Pound Sterling, the Nigerian Naira was strengthened by N5.96 during the session at the official market to settle at N1,585.79/£1 versus the previous day’s value of N1,591.75/£1, and against the Euro, it improved by N4.56 to trade at N1,360.59/€1 versus Thursday’s price of N1,365.15/€1.
The gains were recorded amid an improvement in the supply of forex to the currency market, as the turnover rose by 78.6 per cent or $109.28 million to $248.27 million from $138.99 million.
In the parallel market, the domestic currency maintained stability against the US Dollar on Friday, trading flat at N1,240/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, several cryptocurrencies, including the day’s top gainer, Dogecoin (DOGE), continued to spike in price in the days leading up to the Bitcoin (BTC) halving, the event will cut BTC’s supply in half making the cryptocurrency scarcely available in the markets.
While BTC has demand and less supply, its price will steadily scale up in the charts. The Bitcoin halving event is scheduled to take place on April 21, 2024.
DOGE made a value appreciation of 5.9 per cent to sell at $0.1839, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 2.1 per cent to $582.60, Ethereum (ETH) gained 1.9 per cent to sell for $3,343.38, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 1.8 per cent to $0.5817, BTC grew by 1.7 per cent to $68,169.74, Ripple (XRP) expanded by 1.5 per cent to $0.5092, Solana (SOL) rose by 1.3 per cent to $177.59, and Litecoin (LTC) increased by 0.5 per cent to $99.53, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere 
Modupe Gbadeyanka