By Adedapo Adesanya
The beginning of a new week did not signify a change in fortune for the Naira as it continued its fall of 0.94 per cent or N14.18 against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, July 8, closing at N1,523.85/$1 compared with last Friday’s closing price of N1,509.67/$1.
It was a similar story with the value of the domestic currency to the Euro in the official market during the trading session as it lost N1.61 to sell at N1,637.14/€1 versus the preceding session’s N1,638.75/€1, but closed flat against the Pound Sterling at N1,637.14/£1.
This happened amid an improvement in the supply of forex to the spot market by 14.2 per cent or $16.58 million to $133.46 million from the $116.88 million quoted last Friday.
The development comes as Nigeria’s external reserves increased to $34.66 billion as of July 4, 2024, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
A look at the black market segment of the FX market showed that the Nigerian Naira depreciated against the greenback yesterday by N5 to trade at N1,530/$1, in contrast to the previous session’s value of N1,525/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, tokens closed mostly higher on Monday amid the possibility of Spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
According to reports, SOL ETFs should see a final decision deadline around the middle of March next year after the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) filed applications on Monday to list VanEck and 21Shares’ proposed ETFs.
CBOE filed two Form 19b-4 applications on July 8, one for the 21Shares Core Solana ETF and another for the VanEck Solana Trust.
The CBOE likened the prospective Solana funds to spot Bitcoin (BTC) and spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs, which the SEC approved in January and May, respectively.
SOL recorded a 6.2 per cent gain on the news to trade at $138.91, and Cardano (ADA) gained 7.3 per cent to trade at $0.3678, with ETH expanding by 6.1 per cent to $3,049.60.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) added 5.9 per cent to quote at $512.33, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 5.6 per cent to close at $65.61, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 5.5 per cent to $0.1075, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 4.5 per cent jump to $0.4321, and Bitcoin (BTC) improved by 1.5 per cent to $57,011.67, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere