Naira Falls to N1,543/$1 at Official Market as BTC Hits $50,000

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira depreciated against the Dollar by 4.4 per cent or N64.42 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Monday, February 12 despite recent moves by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to improve forex liquidity.

Data obtained by Business Post showed that the Nigerian currency was traded against the greenback yesterday at N1,534.39/$1 compared with the N1,469.97/$1 it traded last Friday.

Also, the domestic currency depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N40.49 to sell at N1,912.56/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,872.04/£1 and weakened against the Euro by N33.23 to quote at N1,599.06/€1, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N1,632.29/€1.

The value of FX transactions in the spot market on Monday significantly went down by 64.9 per cent or $164.16 million to $89.61 million from $253.77 million.

In the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) section of the forex market, the local currency lost N34 against the US Dollar yesterday to close at N1,502/$1 compared with the preceding session’s closing value of N1,468/$1.

In the same vein, the Naira plunged against the United States currency by N11 to settle at N1,501/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s rate of N1,490/$1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market witnessed Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $50,000 for the first time since late 2021., surpassing its two-year high as optimism and institutional investment certainly catapulted the asset to the current level.

This created a ripple effect with Solana (SOL) making an 8.1 per cent rise to sell at $114.06, as Ethereum (ETH) gained 6.1 per cent to trade at $2,650.02, and Cardano (ADA) increased by 3.8 per cent to trade at $0.5566.

Binance Coin (BNB) appreciated by 2.7 per cent to $327.26, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 2.7 per cent to $0.0823, Ripple (XRP) expanded by 1.7 per cent to $0.528, and Litecoin (LTC) rose by 1.5 per cent to $72.11, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.