The Naira opened the week on a negative note in the official and black market segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Monday amid renewed pressure.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the value of the local currency against the US Dollar depreciated yesterday by 0.16 per cent or N2.46 to sell at N1,503.11/$1, in contrast to the N1,500.65/$1 it was valued last Friday.
The domestic currency, however, traded flat against the Pound Sterling and the Euro on the first trading session of the week at the spot market at N1,868.76/£1 and N1,557.13/€1, respectively.
In the parallel market, the Nigerian Naira weakened against the Dollar yesterday by N5 to sell for N1,570/$1 compared with the preceding session’s rate of N1,565/$1.
There are expectations that the Naira will appreciate in the first quarter of the year, backed by continued policy support by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
However, the external environment has applied pressure on the local currency especially with policy changes in the US, impacting the Dollar- making it stronger.
In the cryptocurrency market, Cardano (ADA) token surged by 15.2 per cent to $0.7945, outperforming other benchmarked tokens after Grayscale Investments applied for the first-ever spot ADA exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.
Grayscale, a prominent crypto asset manager, filed to list the first ever spot ADA fund on the New York Stock Exchange. A spot ETF would enable investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without having to own it directly.
In addition, Litecoin (LTC) gained 14.3 per cent to trade at $140.06, spurred by its prospective Litecoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while Dogecoin (DOGE) recorded a value appreciation of 6.6 per cent to sell at $0.2658.
Further, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 5.6 per cent to $639.89, Ripple (XRP) jumped by 4.8 per cent to $2.50, Ethereum (ETH) increased by 2.9 per cent to close at $2,711.89, Bitcoin (BTC) soared by 1.3 per cent to $98,269.78, and Solana (SOL) rose 1.2 per cent to $204.56, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.