Naira Loses 16 kobo at I&E, Crypto Market Stays Strong

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira opened the week weaker against the US Dollar on Monday, losing 16 kobo or 0.04 per cent at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) segment of the foreign exchange (forex) market.

At the specialised window, the local currency closed at N411.83/$1 in contrast to N411.67/$1 it traded last Friday, according to data obtained by Business Post.

The decline in the value of the domestic currency followed the FX demand pressure mounted on the country’s legal tender at the market window yesterday.

According to data from the FMDQ Securities Exchange, the value of trades at the market segment increased by 203.6 per cent or $41.96 million to $116.45 million from the $57.19 million turnover recorded at the previous session.

However, at the black market, the Naira maintained stability against the US Dollar yesterday as its value remained unchanged at N515/$1.

In the same vein, the Nigerian currency traded flat against the Pound Sterling during the trading session, closing at N708/£1 but appreciated against the Euro by N2 to close at N604/€1 compared with N606/€1 of the preceding trading day.

At the interbank window, the local currency depreciated against the American currency on Monday by 3 kobo or 0.01 per cent to quote at N410.16/$1 versus N411.13/$1 of the previous session.

Crypto Market Surges

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market witnessed a surge yesterday as more people continue to embrace digital coins globally.

On Monday, PayPal announced that it will allow customers in the world’s fifth-largest economy, the United Kingdom, to make crypto transactions.

This will be the first international expansion of PayPal’s crypto service beyond the US, and another hint at wider adoption of the industry.

This sent positive signals to the crypto market as Bitcoin (BTC) which crossed the $50,000 for the first time since May surged by 10.4 per cent to trade at N25,566,073.30.

The highest gain was recorded by Dash (DASH) which grew by 30.8 per cent to trade at N136,000, while Ripple (XRP) made a 10.2 per cent appreciation to trade at N634.02.

Tron (TRX) jumped by 8.9 per cent to sell for N46.07, Litecoin (LTC) appreciated by 7.7 per cent to trade at N96,898.97, while Ethereum (ETH) rose by 5.6 per cent to sell at N1,700,500.04.

However, the US Dollar Tether (USDT) did not join the happy party as it went down 0.8 per cent to sell for N520.86.