Naira Value Depletes as Cryptos Fall After Binance Lawsuit

By Adedapo Adesanya

It was a negative outcome for the Nigerian Naira on Monday as its value against the US Dollar depleted in the black market, the Peer-2-Peer (P2P) and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) windows of the foreign exchange market.

In the midst of the forex and cash scarcity in the country, the Naira lost N12 against the greenback yesterday in the P2P to trade at N768/41, in contrast to last Friday’s value of N756/$1.

Also, in the parallel market, the domestic currency shrank by N2 against the United States Dollar to quote at N745/$1 compared with the previous session’s exchange rate of N743/$1.

Similarly, in the official market, the local currency declined by 17 Kobo or 0.05 per cent against its American counterpart to trade at N461.50/$1 compared with last Friday’s rate of N461.33/$1 despite the FX turnover for the day going down by 57.8 per cent or $139.61 million to $101.77 million from the $241.38 million recorded in the preceding session.

However, the local currency closed stronger against the Pound Sterling in the interbank segment on Monday by N3.41 to close at N562.67/£1 versus last Friday’s N566.08/£1, and against the Euro, it appreciated by N3.27 to N494.45/€1 from N497.72/€1.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was largely down yesterday after the leading crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance, and its CEO, Mr Changpeng Zhao, were sued Monday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The US regulator alleged that Mr Zhao and his company violated trading and derivatives rules, according to a lawsuit filed by the CFTC in a Chicago federal court.

As a result of this development, Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 2.5 per cent to $26,941.32, as Ethereum (ETH) slid 2.5 per cent to $1,717.83, while the domestic coin of the exchange, Binance Coin (BNB), went south by 5.9 per cent to trade at $309.03.

Litecoin (LTC) fell by 6.2 per cent to $86.54, Solana (SOL) recorded a 3.9 per cent slump to trade at $19.85, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 1.8 per cent to $0.0724, Cardano (ADA) lost 0.7 per cent to trade at $0.3487, while Ripple (XRP) rose by 6.9 per cent to $0.4849, with Binance USD (BUSD) and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) unchanged at $1.00 apiece.