Naira Gains Against Dollar, Euro, Weakens Against Pound at NAFEX

The Naira further appreciated against the United States Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Thursday, October 29, by 62 Kobo or 0.05 per cent to close at N1,346.91/$1, in contrast to the previous day’s N1,347.53/$1.

The Naira also improved its value against the Euro in the official market during the session by N1.77 to sell at N1,498.57/€1 compared with Wednesday’s N1,500.34/€1, but lost N3.23 against the Pound Sterling to settle at N1,794.09/£1 versus the preceding day’s N1,790.86/£1.

At the black market, the Nigerian currency maintained stability against the greenback yesterday at N1,378/$1 and also closed flat at the GTBank FX desk at N1,365/$1.

Easing pressure on the local currency continued as data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that Interbank FX turnover slipped further by 77.9 per cent to $54.051 million from $244.608 million, while the number of FX deals decreased to 74 deals from 151 deals.

Recent liquidity intervention by the CBN saw Nigeria’s foreign reserves fall for the first time in two months. The apex bank sold $500 million to banks during the week. Gross external reserves declined to $55.257 billion from $55.264 billion.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market was in turmoil on Thursday as a hacker stole about 18,270 bitcoin worth $1.4 billion from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, and divided it among 19 wallets, none of which had sent funds onward as of early Friday.

Binance said preliminary findings pointed to a compromised employee laptop used to submit unauthorised withdrawals and put total losses from the attack at $6.3 billion and pledged to cover them, while deposits and withdrawals remained suspended.

TRM, a blockchain intelligence firm, said in a report that it assessed with “high confidence” that the attack was carried out by North Korea’s hacking unit TraderTraitor, which investigators have linked to the Lazarus Group.

This sent jitters to the market, with Binance Coin (BNB), the exchange’s native token, down by 4.9 per cent to $715.66. Ethereum (ETH) dipped by 3.0 per cent to $2,243.92, Ripple (XRP) declined by 2.8 per cent to $1.25, Dogecoin (DOGE) shrank by 2.7 per cent to $0.0762, Cardano (ADA) slipped by 2.4 per cent to $0.1938, Solana (SOL) weakened by 2.2 per cent to $97.90, and Bitcoin (BTC) crashed by 1.9 per cent to $78,481.58.

But TRON (TRX) appreciated by 2.2 per cent to $0.3380, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) traded flat at $1.00 apiece.

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Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.

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