Naira Appreciates as Cryptos Crumble

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (FX) market by 0.01 per cent or 3 kobo on Wednesday, October 27.

The local currency sold for N415.07/$1 yesterday, according to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange and at the previous trading day, the exchange rate was N415.10/$1.

It was observed that the decline in the demand for forex at the segment supported the appreciation the domestic currency recorded at the midweek trading session.

The turnover for the day stood at $147.44 million in contrast to the $200.74 million published at the preceding session, indicating a $53.3 million or 26.6 per cent slide in the daily turnover.

However, at the interbank segment of the market, the Nigerian currency recorded no price movement against the American Dollar as it closed flat at N411.02/$1.

But it was not the same scenario against the British Pound Sterling at the interbank window as the local currency depreciated by N2.14 to trade at N567.50/£1 compared to N565.36/£1 it traded on Tuesday.

Similarly, the Naira lost 44 kobo against the Euro as it closed on Wednesday at N477.56/€1 in contrast to N477.12/€1 it finished a day earlier.

At the cryptocurrency market, only a week ago, Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high of nearly $67,000, but recently, investors are leaving the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency in favour of the latest market darling, Shiba Inu.

Shiba Inu, a Dogecoin spinoff, is close to surpassing Elon Musk’s favourite crypto as it has surged more than 30 per cent in the last 24 hours, hitting a record high above $0.00006 having more than doubled in price in the last week.

In Naira equivalent, the most popular of the digital coins, BTC, sold for N33,467,596.47 after it depreciated by 3.0 per cent, though it was not the heaviest loser yesterday.

Dash (DASH) went down by 11.8 per cent to sell for N103,024.01, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 10.6 per cent to trade at N580.00, while Cardano (ADA) decreased by 8.9 per cent to N1,152.82.

In addition, Tron (TRX) went down by 6.6 per cent to trade at N53.80, Litecoin (LTC) sold for N103,501.00 after it lost 5.6 per cent, Binance Coin (BNB) recorded a 5.3 per cent depreciation to trade at N185,508.03, Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 2.4 per cent to sell at N142.42, while Ethereum (ETH) fell by 1.4 per cent to trade at N2,399,957.92.

However, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) moved up by 0.2 per cent during the trading session to finish at N568.31.