Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira appreciated further against the greenback in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) segment of the FX market on Monday, March 5 by N14.06 or 0.9 per cent to trade at N1,534.19/$1 compared with last Friday’s value of N1,548.25/$1.
The improvement in the value of the domestic currency happened as the forex market attempts to find stability after months of turbulence due to a shortfall in the supply of Dollars into the system.
Yesterday, the value of forex trades depreciated by 39.7 per cent or $117.37 million to $178.63 million from the $296.00 million recorded in the preceding trading session.
Business Post reports that the decline in the turnover did not affect the market, as the local currency maintained stability against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the spot market, remaining unchanged at N1,956.06/£1 and N1,675.25/€1, respectively.
Recent efforts to clamp down on alleged saboteurs in the FX market to complement the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) received the backing of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes, which recommended the arrest of the Chief Executive Officer of Binance Holding Limited, Mr Changpeng Zhao.
The lawmakers said Mr Zhao should be arrested and be brought to the committee to answer questions about the grave allegations levelled against the company in a petition brought to the committee.
This and others created panic in the parallel market, as the Nigerian Naira weakened against the US Dollar yesterday by N45 to quote at N1,605/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,560/$1.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) hit a fresh high of $67,000 in the cryptocurrency market on Monday, gaining about 50 per cent this year, with most of the rise coming in the last few weeks when inflows into US-listed bitcoin funds have surged.
Spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved in the US earlier this year and their launch opened the way for new large investors and has re-ignited enthusiasm and momentum reminiscent of the run-up to record levels in 2021, and yesterday, it chalked up 5.7 per cent to sell at $67,234.62.
Further, Dogecoin (DOGE) appreciated by 13.1 per cent to trade at $0.184, Ethereum (ETH) increased by 7.2 per cent to $3,719.48, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 3.0 per cent rise to trade at $0.6437, Solana (SOL) jumped by 2.3 per cent to $132.05, and Binance Coin (BNB) gained 2.2 per cent to settle at $424.01.
On the flip side, Cardano (ADA) slumped by 1.6 per cent to trade at $0.7685, and Litecoin (LTC) depreciated by 0.4 per cent to $89.86, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) closed flat at $1.00 each.
