By Adedapo Adesanya

The Naira appreciated against the US Dollar by N1.91 or 0.14 per cent to N1,353.97/$1 in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) on Friday, November 13, from N1,355.88/$1 on Thursday.

Equally, the domestic currency improved its value against the Pound Sterling yesterday at the official market by N6.45 to end at N1,791.44/£1 versus the previous day’s N1,797.89/£1, and gained N6.45 against the Euro to quote at N1,496.68/€1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,503.13/€1.

But the local currency maintained stability against the Dollar in the parallel market and the GTBank FX desk at N1,390/$1 and N1,365/$1, respectively.

Interbank FX trades, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), depleted by 27.5 per cent yesterday to $466.965 million from $644.845 million a day earlier, with the number of deals down to 146 deals from 242 deals.

Nigeria continues to record an outflow of foreign currencies as the nation’s gross external reserves contracted this week. FX analysts said offshore investors have been dumping Naira assets, driving up demand for the US Dollar.

Data from the CBN showed Nigeria’s foreign reserves fell to $54.873 billion.

As for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin fell below $68,000, its lowest since August, as turmoil in tech stocks, Strategy concerns and demand for Anthropic’s IPO weighed on sentiment. On Friday, it lost 2.6 per cent to trade at $67,027.79.

Market analysts noted that investors scrambling for an allocation in the AI company’s IPO, which is looking to raise as much as $64.4 billion, may be selling crypto and other liquid assets to free up cash.

Also, Mr Jensen Huang’s controversial departure from Nvidia, recent cybersecurity incidents and the prospect of Strategy’s removal from MSCI global indexes are factors weighing on sentiment.

Solana (SOL) dropped 5.2 per cent to trade at $75.51, Cardano (ADA) dipped by 4.2 per cent to $0.1629, Ripple (XRP) fell by 4.1 per cent to $0.9857, Binance Coin (BNB) tumbled by 3.1 per cent to $614.49, Dogecoin (DOGE) depreciated by 2.9 per cent to $0.0675, and Ethereum (ETH) declined by 1.8 per cent to $1,900.47.

However, TRON (TRX) appreciated by 0.7 per cent to $0.3128, 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.