The Naira improved its value against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, December 19 by 0.18 per cent or N12.82 to sell at N1,541.38/$1 compared with the preceding trading day’s N1,554.20/$1.
Equally, the Nigerian Naira strengthened its value against the Pound Sterling in the official market yesterday by N17.84 to trade at N1,936.23/£1 compared with the preceding session’s N1,954.07/£1.
In the same vein, the local currency appreciated against the Euro at the same market segment by N77.46 to quote at N1,537.43/€1 versus midweek’s closing rate of N1,614.89/€1.
Also, the Naira gained N10 against the greenback during the trading session to settle at N1,650/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s closing value of N1,666/$1.
A look at the digital currency market showed that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) plunged below the $100,000 level to the $96,000 mark on Thursday, triggered by the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointing investors with his comments on US interest rate cut expectations for next year.
US Federal Reserve’s projection of a slower pace of rate cuts for next year and Mr Powell’s hawkish tone on rising inflation expectations led to a broad-market selloff across assets like crypto.
Business Post reports that BTC lost 4.9 per cent yesterday to quote at $96,330.89.
Dogecoin (DOGE) went down by 13.7 per cent to sell at $0.313, Cardano (ADA) slid by 10.5 per cent to trade at $0.8796, Solana (SOL) slid by 9.7 per cent to finish at $189.95, and Ethereum (ETH) recorded a loss of 9.2 per cent to finish at $3,342.61.
Further, Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 8.1 per cent to settle at $99.51, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 5.1 per cent to close at $666.49, Ripple (XRP) recorded a 4.5 per cent fall to end the trading day at $2.25, and the US Dollar Tether (USDT) lost 0.02 per cent to quote at $0.9994, while the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00.