Naira Appreciates to N416/$1 at Spot Market as Cryptos Bleed

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further appreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market by 1.58 per cent or N6.67 on Wednesday, January 5.

According to data obtained from FMDQ Securities Exchange, the Naira was sold at the spot market yesterday at N416.00/$1 compared with N422.67/$1 it was traded on Tuesday.

Before the close of business last year, the local currency had significantly depreciated to N435.00/$1 following devaluation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and this sparked reactions from Nigerians.

It was observed that during the second trading session of the week and year, the FX turnover at the I&E segment of the market increased by 5.4 per cent or $5.88 million.

This was because the value of transactions at the window stood at $114.95 million as against $109.07 million published at the preceding session.

But at the interbank segment of the forex market, the domestic currency recorded a downward movement against the American Dollar by 12 kobo as it was exchanged at N413.79/$1 in contrast to N413.67/$1 of the last session.

Also, the Nigerian currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N2.45 to close at N560.44/£1 in contrast to the previous rate of N557.99/£1 and against the Euro, the Naira depreciated by N1.5 to sell for N468.33/€1 compared with N466.33/€1 of the preceding session.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was down on Wednesday as the US Federal Reserve signalled the possibility of raising interest rates sooner than expected.

This affected the crypto market and caused Litecoin (LTC) to fall by 10 per cent to trade at N77,000.80, while Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 4.8 per cent to N96.63, with Binance Coin (BNB) recording a 4.6 per cent depreciation to trade at N208,210.47.

Tron (TRX) went down by 4.3 per cent to trade at N42.00, Dash (DASH) plunged by 4.1 per cent to sell for N73,841.62, Cardano (ADA) also lost 4.1 per cent to quote at N736.44, Bitcoin (BTC) declined by 3.9 per cent to N25,090,580.02, Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 1.6 per cent to trade at N461.03, while Ethereum (ETH) fell by 0.1 per cent to N2,096,100.18.

However, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) recorded a 0.9 per cent gain to sell for N461.03.