Naira in free fall to record low at official market as dollar supply drops by 54%
Naira depreciated significantly against the US dollar on Thursday to close at N422.07/$1, representing a 1.68% drop when compared to N415.10/$1 recorded on Wednesday, October 13, 2021.
Similarly, the exchange rate at the parallel market closed at N573/$1. This is according to information obtained from BDC operators in Lagos.
The local currency weakened to a record low at the official market as forex liquidity drops significantly by 54%
Trading at the official NAFEX window
The exchange rate depreciated against the US dollar on Thursday, 14th October 2021 to close the day at N422.07 to a dollar, representing an N6.97 drop, compared to N415.10/$1 recorded on Wednesday, 13th October 2021.
The opening indicative rate closed at N413.50/$1 on Thursday, representing a 24 kobo gain when compared to N413.74/$1 recorded the previous trading day.
An exchange rate of N436 to a dollar was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N422.07/$1, while it sold for as low as N404/$1 during intra-day trading.
Meanwhile, forex turnover at the official window dropped significantly by 53.7% on Thursday, 14th October 2021.
According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover declined from $306.77 million recorded on Wednesday to $141.94 million on Thursday, October 14, 2021.
The world’s most popular and largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was up by 3.52% on early on Friday to trade at $59,684.77 as it nears $60,000 with investors eyeing first US ETFs.
Bitcoin hit a six-month high early hours of Friday, approaching the record hit in April, as traders became increasingly confident that U.S. regulators would approve the launch of an exchange-traded fund based on its futures contracts.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency hit its highest since mid-April, doubling in value this year and is near April’s record high of $64,895.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is poised to allow the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF to begin trading next week, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The cryptocurrency market is now worth more than the world’s most valuable company after bitcoin and several leading altcoins surged in price on Thursday. The global crypto market cap is now $2.37 trillion (£1.73tn), overtaking the $2.33tn market cap of Apple.
Meanwhile, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum, was up by 5.38% on Thursday evening to trade at $3,826.07.
Also, Nigeria traded about $32.16 million in Bitcoin in the month of September, indicating a drop compared to $44 million recorded in the previous month. The total trading volume between January and September 2021 stood at $315.76 million.
