Heatwaves, Crypto Bans and Everything In Between
Welcome to the month of March, don't forget to stay hydrated.
How are you doing? How is the weather over there? I trust you have been sailing through the stormy waves life has been offering, and I hope this letter could not have reached you at a better time than when it did.
Before going too deep into the serious details of this letter, let's have a quick chat about the heat in the last half of February. It was a scorching wave that suddenly hit out of nowhere, and if you ask me, I’d say we jinxed ourselves by complaining about the harmattan at the beginning of the month. The weather had every one of us like…
Amidst the extreme unsolicited heat, the weeks passed by in a blur, and It is with gladness in my heart (screams internally) that I remind you that exams are in a few days. I can only hope that you are well prepared and didn’t get deceived by the three-week facade. My advice to you, albeit late, is “to not try to cover all only the night before your exam.” to avoid…
Is Crypto The Real Cause Of The Dollar Hike?
A ban was placed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on banks and financial institutions, which prevented them from dealing in or facilitating transactions in crypto assets in February 2021 due to concerns over money laundering and terrorism financing. Well, as we all know, the ban was lifted, and they were able to find a middle ground; banks were allowed to open accounts for crypto companies and facilitate crypto transactions, but they were prohibited from trading, holding or transacting cryptocurrencies.
Now, getting into my worries. If you’re a constant user of X(Twitter), you would have seen the recent buzz about crypto or Binance being the cause of the USD hike. It left me in awe ‘cause it seemed ridiculous on the surface. Still, as a curious individual, I did some research and found out that recently, Nigerians have been purchasing cryptocurrency due to the unstable Naira value and present inflation. The USD is the number 1 Fiat currency used to trade cryptocurrency. This means that a lot of people use the USD to trade crypto.
More research revealed that the USD is the world's reserve currency, meaning it is used in international trade and financial transactions. Its value also depends on demand, which means the more people trade for another commodity (e.g., Bitcoin) with the USD, the more its value grows. As such, its value has a significant impact on the global economy and financial markets, including the cryptocurrency market. Although this wasn’t the case with Nigeria, what happened was the Naira depreciated in comparison with the USD. This is why the whole discussion on crypto influencing the USD rate is still quite odd. We’ve still not heard of proper measures to combat the sudden hike, which has led to even worse inflation because what do you mean 1 USD~NGN1600?
Hope I didn’t bore you out with the crypto talk!😅 But staying in the loop about global events is key, and technology makes it a backstage pass to the world’s most exciting show.
Till next time. ✌️
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Stay jiggy till we meet again,
ECX 4.0 Team 💛💙❤️.