The Naira witnessed the fourth straight depreciation this week on Thursday, March 27, losing 0.07 per cent or N1.11 on the US Dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) to close at N1,538.91/$1 compared with the previous day’s value of N1,537.80/$1.
The pressure on the local currency came amid claims of speculation in the FX market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
However, there are indications that the CBN may intervene in the market soon after the nation’s foreign reserves rose to $38.322 billion on uptick in oil prices.
Equally, the Naira depreciated against the Pound Sterling in the official market by N5.50 to close at N1,990.87/£1 versus Wednesday’s closing price of N1,985.37/£1 and tumbled against the Euro by 47 Kobo to finish at closed N1,659.59/€1, in contrast to midweek’s value of N1,659.12/€1.
At the black market, the exchange rate of the Nigerian currency and it’s American counterpart remained unchanged yesterday at N1,560/$1.
In the cryptocurrency market, there were major red outcomes as the market reacted after two of President Donald Trump’s nominees for future crypto regulation – Paul Atkins expected to run the Securities and Exchnage Commission (SEC) and Jonathan Gould to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – faced the nomination hearing in the US Senate.
However, there were no proper oversights examined on the governance and growth of the industry.
Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 6.7 per cent to sell at $0.1842, Ethereum (ETH) slumped by 5.2 per cent to $1,922.84, Ripple (XRP) fell by 4.6 per cent to $2.25, and Litecoin (LTC) recorded a 4.3 per cent slide to trade at $89.99.
Further, Cardano (ADA) fell by 3.8 per cent to $0.7114, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.3 per cent to $134.29, and Bitcoin (BTC) lost 1.8 per cent to sell for $85,930.47.
However, Binance Coin (BNB) went up by 0.4 per cent to $632.92, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) sold flat at $1.00 each.