By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira had a bad day in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, January 12 as its value fell by 1.8 per cent or N15.66 against the US Dollar to N890.45/$1 from the preceding day’s N874.79/$1, according to data obtained from the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
However, it appreciated against the British Pound Sterling during the session in the official market by N30.10 to close at N1,104.75/£1, in contrast to Thursday’s exchange rate of N1,134.85/£1 and against the Euro, it gained N28.31 to settle at N948.95/€1 compared with the previous day’s value of N977.26/€1.
The local currency moved in different directions in the FX market window amid a decline in the value of forex transacted on the last trading day of the week, with FMDQ posting $85.85 million, 22.2 per cent or $24.56 million lower than the $110.41 million reported a day earlier.
In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) segment, the domestic currency further crashed against the American currency by N10 yesterday to sell for N1,259/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N1,249/$1.
It was not different in the parallel market, where the Nigerian currency further weakened against its US counterpart by N6 on Friday to quote at N2,265/$1 compared with N1,260/$1 it was transacted on Thursday.
In the digital currency market, Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 5.9 per cent to $43,120 yesterday as the euphoria over the Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved this week gave way to a massive rout.
The decline happened a day after spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading, marking a significant milestone for the industry.
Bitcoin ETFs are traditional financial vehicles that may give retail and institutional investors alike easier exposure to Bitcoin’s price.
Also, Ethereum (ETH) dropped 2.0 per cent to $2,550.73, Solana (SOL) depleted by 5.7 per cent to $92.93, Cardano (ADA) went down by 4.5 per cent to $0.5507, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 3.7 per cent to sell at $0.0808.
In addition, Ripple (XRP) lost 3.0 per cent to trade at $0.576, Binance Coin (BNB) slipped by 2.6 per cent to $299.90, and Litecoin (LTC) crumbled by 2,0 per cent to $71.98, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00, respectively.
