By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, March 15 by 0.4 per cent or N6.23 to close at N1,602.75/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,608.98/$1.
It also improved its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N11.51 to sell at N2,066.33/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N2,054.82/£1 and against the Euro, it calked up N12.04 to quote at N1,751.58/€1 versus Thursday’s rate of N1,766.62/€1.
The value of foreign exchange (FX) trades during the session went down by $106.22 million or 43.6 per cent to $137.43 million from $243.65 million.
A look at the parallel market showed that the Nigerian Naira maintained stability against the Dollar during the trading day at N1,605/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, momentum weakened as Bitcoin’s (BTC) price crashed from a record high to the $68,000 region on Friday, closing at $68,180.
It came after Mr Nayib Bukele, the second-term president of El Salvador, said that the country has moved a big chunk of its BTC portfolio to cold wallet storage to be stored in a physical vault within the country. For holders, this sort of move normally suggests that large investors plan to sell, influencing bearish pressure.
The biggest loss was recorded by Dogecoin (DOGE), which declined by 6.5 per cent to sell at $0.1524, Cardano (ADA) slid by 3.1 per cent to trade at $0.6962, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 1.5 per cent slump to settle at $0.6204, Litecoin (LTC) went down by 1.1 per cent to $87.62, Ethereum (ETH) saw its value fall by 0.8 per cent to sell at $2,312.83, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) depreciated by 0.04 per cent to finish at $0.9996.
On the flip side, Solana (SOL) made a 4.6 per cent appreciation to sell at $192.92, and Binance Coin (BNB) jumped by 0.6 per cent to quote at $596.66, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Dipo Olowookere