By Adedapo Adesanya
The value of the Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by 0.16 per cent or N2.70 at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, closing at N1,541.52/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,544.02/$1.
The improvement in the value of the domestic currency came from an enhanced forex supply during the last trading session of the week, with the turnover up by 117.8 per cent or $103.06 million to $190.57 million from the $87.51 million recorded a day earlier.
However, the local currency traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro in the official market yesterday at N2,108.64/£1 and N1,772.61/€1, respectively.
The Nigerian currency, in the parallel market, appreciated against the Dollar on Friday by N5 to sell at N1,660/$1 compared with the preceding day’s rate of N1,665/$1.
Cryptocurrencies were largely negative on Friday after investors embarked on profit-taking from the aftermath of the Federal Reserve’s decision to lower interest rates on Wednesday.
The central bank announced that it would slash the Federal Funds rate by 50 basis points and traders observed that macroeconomic data is a source of optimism for riskier assets like cryptos as liquidity is in abundance.
The losers were led by Solana (SOL) which slumped 2.8 per cent to trade at $146.86, followed by Cardano (ADA), which went south by 1.7 per cent to quote at $0.3536, and Dogecoin (DOGE) which depreciated by 1.3 per cent to sell at $0.1052.
Further, Litecoin (LTC) made a 1.2 per cent fall to finish at $65.48, Ripple (XRP) decreased by 1.1 per cent to settle at $0.5825, Bitcoin (BTC) slid by 1.0 per cent to close at $63,021.28, and Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 0.3 per cent to trade at $2,550.91.
But the price of Binance Coin (BNB) went up during the trading session by 0.7 per cent to end at $578.22, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
Dipo Olowookere 
Modupe Gbadeyanka