Naira Trades N1,499/$1 at NAFEM as Crypto Market Plunges

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira began a new week stronger against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) after it chalked up 0.1 per cent or N1.50 on Monday, March 3 to quote at N1,499.23/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,500.73/$1.

However, the local currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling by N20.92 in the official market during the session to settle at N1,901.61/£1 compared with last Friday’s value of N1,880.69/£1 and against the Euro, it depreciated by N17.99 to trade at N1,570.93/€1 compared with the previous trading day’s N1,552.94/€1.

At the black market, the Nigerian Naira weakened against the Dollar by N5 on Monday to sell for N1,510/$1 compared with the preceding session’s value of N1,505/$1.

In the cryptocurrency market, there were massive plunges across the board as the landscape tumbled on plans by the administration of President Donald Trump of the US to start tariffs on its top three trading partners – Canada, Mexico, and China.

The American president also announced plans to launch a strategic crypto reserve as he sets his sight to make the country the largest holder of the assets.

He named five coins that the US will be included in the reserve including: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA).

The biggest loser in the last 24 hours was  ADA as it slipped by 19.8 per cent to close at $0.8128, followed by SOL which slid by 15.8 per cent to trade at $133.44, XRP went down by 13.9 per cent to close at $2.32, Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a value depreciation of 12.8 per cent to sell at $0.1928, and  Litecoin (LTC) dipped by 12.6 per cent to finish at $105.00.

Further, ETH shrank by 12.2 per cent to end at $2,093.41, BTC dropped 9.0 per cent to end at $83,628.69, and Binance Coin (BNB) moderated by 6.6 per cent to trade at $562.50, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 apiece.