Naira Collapses to Nine-Month Low as Bitcoin Dips to $18,000

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira further depreciated against the US Dollar at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday, September 6.

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the domestic currency lost 0.29 per cent or N1.25 to sell for N436.00/$1 compared with the previous session’s rate of N434.75/$1.

The exchange rate of the local currency to the greenback yesterday was the lowest level it has traded in 9 months as on December 30, 2021, it was exchanged at N435.00/$1.

In the second trading session of the week, the FX turnover was $63.05 million, $36.63 million or 36.7 per cent lower than the $99.68 million reported in the preceding session.

Also, the Nigerian currency collapsed against the American currency on Tuesday by 0.84 per cent or N6 in the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment of the market, closing at N721/$1 in contrast to the previous day’s value of N715/$1.

At the interbank window, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling by N3.24 to trade at N493.50/£1 versus Monday’s N490.26/£1 and against the Euro, it depreciated by 20 Kobo to settle at N423.11/€1 compared with N422.91/€1.

In the black market, the local currency declined by N2 against the greenback to quote at N702/$1 in contrast to the preceding day’s N700/$1, according to data harvested by Business Post from some currency traders in Lagos.

Yesterday, investments in the cryptocurrency market were largely bearish as eight of the 10 digital coins tracked from various crypto exchanges shed weight, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling by 5.4 per cent to $18,818.36.

Litecoin (LTC) dropped 9.6 per cent to sell at $54.34, Ethereum (ETH) went down by 8.2 per cent to quote at $1,519.58, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 7.8 per cent to trade at $0.4649, Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 6.4 per cent to $0.0592, Binance Coin (BNB) pointed south by 5.6 per cent to finish at $264.49, Solana (SOL) slumped by 5.4 per cent to $31.13, and Ripple (XRP) depreciated by 3.9 per cent to $0.3209.

But the value of Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) remained unchanged at the close of transactions at $1.00