Naira closed flat as Russian-Ukraine invasion sends cryptos crashing

Trading at the official NAFEX window

The exchange rate at the Investors and Exporters window closed at N416/$1 on Wednesday, 23rd February 2022, which is the same as the closing rate recorded in the previous trading session.

• The opening indicative rate closed at N414.83/$1 on Wednesday. This represents a 93 kobo appreciation compared to the N415.76/$1 recorded on Tuesday, 22nd February 2022.
• An exchange rate of N444/$1 was the highest rate recorded during intra-day trading before it settled at N416/$1, while it sold for as low as N410/$1 during intra-day trading,
• Meanwhile, forex turnover at the official window dropped by 36.41% to $88.36 million on Wednesday, 23rd February 2022.
• According to data tracked by Nairametrics from FMDQ, forex turnover at the I&E window dropped to $88.36 million on Wednesday from $138.95 million recorded on Tuesday, 22nd February 2022.

Crypto market

The cryptocurrency market started the day with huge losses as the industry market capitalization already dipped $131.27 billion in the early hours of Thursday morning, following the report that Russia has started invading Ukraine.

Bitcoin, which is the flagship crypto asset and the most capitalized cryptocurrency dipped by 6.85% to trade at $34,750, while Ethereum recorded a 10.05% decline to trade at $2,323.51. Solana, also recorded a 6.06% decline in to trade at $79.3625, Terra crashed by 13.86% to trade at $51.36 while Uniswap followed suite with a 12.91% decline to trade at $7.63.

The bearish movement in the crypto market came on the back of the announcement by the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, ordering a special military operation in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. The announcement was soon followed by various explosions heard in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv and the eastern port city of Mariupol in the early hours of Thursday.