A marginal loss of 10 Kobo or 0.01 per cent was suffered by the Naira against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, July 18.
According to data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the exchange rate closed at N1,533.32/$1 compared with the N1,533.22/$1 it ended on Thursday.
Similarly, the Nigerian currency depreciated further against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the trading session by N3.56 to trade at N2,060.08/£1 compared with the previous day’s N2,056.52/£1 and lost N8.60 against the Euro to finish at N1,785.02/€1 versus the N1,776.42/€1 it was exchanged a day earlier.
The further decline in the local currency came amid concerns about the sustainability of the currency defense strategy of the central bank as well as the weak state of oil earnings, subdued foreign portfolio investment inflows, and uncertainties around external financing.
Meanwhile, there are positives that the Naira may latch onto including improved crude output as well as enhanced foreign portfolio investment (FPI) inflows amid slowdown in import trade-related outflows.
In the black market, the Nigerian Naira closed flat against the Dollar yesterday at N1,535/$1.
The cryptocurrency market succumbed to profit-taking after President Donald Trump fulfilled part of his vow to establish US crypto regulations on Friday, signing legislation into law that formally established rules for stablecoin issuers.
The milestone marked a first step that the digital assets industry hopes will end with the more important regulatory regime governing the wider crypto markets.
The GENIUS Act will now be forwarded to the federal financial and banking agencies that must implement its various provisions. That will include formalizing the definitions for what kind of firms make acceptable issuers of stablecoins.
Litecoin (LTC) dropped 5.9 per cent to sell at $102.48, Cardano (ADA) lost 5.9 per cent to trade at $0.8244, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.8 per cent to close at $176.55, Ripple (XRP) fell by 3.5 per cent to $3.44, Ethereum (ETH) tumbled by 2.2 per cent to $3,575.00, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 1.9 per cent to $732.95, and Bitcoin (BTC) slumped by 1.8 per cent to $118,218.96.
However, Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped by 1.8 per cent to $0.2511, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.