By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira recorded a 0.2 per cent or N1 fall against the United States Dollar at the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market on Tuesday, closing at N576/$1 in contrast to N575/$1 it traded at the last trading session.
The demand for cryptocurrencies is making investors pay more Naira to get a Dollar at the P2P forex market. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has triggered the appetite for digital coins and holders in Nigeria are requesting more Naira to release theirs.
Yesterday, eight of the 10 tokens tracked by Business Post across several trading platforms appreciated in value, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising by 5.3 per cent to sell for N25,125,000.55, followed by Binance Coin (BNB), which recorded a 4.8 per cent appreciation to trade at N169,471.40.
Ethereum (ETH) saw its value rise by 4.7 per cent to N1,737,833.92, Cardano (ADA) made a 3.5 per cent growth to sell at N564.94, Dogecoin (DOGE) improved by 3.3 per cent to sell at N78.23, Dash (DASH) gained 2.9 per cent to trade at N56,945.24, Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 2.0 per cent appreciation to trade at N65,425.50, while Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.9 per cent jump to quote at N491.45.
But Solana (SOL) retreated during the session by 0.4 per cent to trade at N57,487.40, the United States Dollar Tether moved downwards by 0.1 per cent to trade at N584.91.
Meanwhile, at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the FX market in Nigeria, the local currency traded flat against the greenback on Tuesday at N416.67/$1 amid a significant increase in the demand for forex at the window.
Data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange showed that the turnover for the session was $121.54 million, 51.3 per cent or $41.22 million lower than the $80.32 million reported at the previous session.
Equally, the value of the Naira to the Pound Sterling remained unchanged at the market yesterday at N558.23/£1 just as the Euro also closed flat against the domestic currency at N466.37/€1.
Dipo Olowookere