The Naira’s recent positive run ended on Friday after it slipped against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) by 0.16 per cent or N2.50 to N1,528.49/$1 from the N1,525.99/$1 it was sold at the previous session.
Equally, the local currency tumbled against the Pound Sterling in the same market segment yesterday by N5.25 to settle at N2,087.09/£1 compared with the preceding day’s N2,081.84/£1 and lost N6.27 on the Euro to finish at N1,800.79/€1 versus Thursday’s closing price of N1,794.52/€1.
However, in the black market, the Nigerian Naira gained N10 against the US Dollar during the trading session to finish at N1,540/$1 compared with the previous session’s rate of N1,550/$1.
In the week, the value of the Naira was boosted by sufficient FX liquidity support levels by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This improvement in the forex market spurred the resumption of the use of Naira debit cards for international payments after it was suspend over two years ago.
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was down on Friday as movements from ancient Bitcoin whales, which were dormant for 14 years, suddenly sprung to life, moving over $1.1 billion worth of BTC. This raised worries that a hack may have occurred.
Solana (SOL) went down by 2.8 per cent to close at $148.23, Dogecoin (DOGE) slumped by 2.4 per cent to sell at $0.1649, Ethereum (ETH) depreciated by 1.3 per cent to finish at $2,527.98, and Litecoin (LTC) shrank by 0.9 per cent to end at $86.95.
Further, Cardano (ADA) declined by 0.8 per cent to settle at $0.5820, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by 0.7 per cent to finish at $108,301.98, Binance Coin (BNB) crumbled by 0.4 per cent to $656.24, and Ripple (XRP) weakened by 0.3 per cent to $2.22, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.