Central African Republic seemingly launches memecoin while doubts emerge

The official X account of the President of the Central African Republic appears to have announced that the country has launched a memecoin as part of an experiment to see whether it can benefit national development.

“Today, we are launching $CAR — an experiment designed to show how something as simple as a meme can unite people, support national development, and put the Central African Republic on the world stage in a unique way,” CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s X account wrote Sunday.

The Block has reached out to the Central African Republic government to confirm whether the memecoin is a legitimate endeavor by its government.

The CAR memecoin is described as “the official meme of the Central African Republic” on Solana launchpad pump.fun, where it is being traded for around $0.45. As of 8:10 p.m. on Sunday, ET, the Central African Republic memecoin had about $374.4 million in market capitalization.

A follow-up social media post included a video announcement of the memecoin launch apparently featuring President Touadéra himself.

“The Central African Republic has always believed in the power and the importance of a strong community,” the video announcement said.

While the memecoin project also created a dedicated X account to share daily updates and announcements on the token, it has since been suspended by the social media platform. President Touadéra’s X account said the project is working with the platform to revive the account as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, several members of the crypto community cast doubts on the memecoin project soon after it was announced. “Do not buy $CAR, it’s a scam,” wrote X user Skynet Insights. “They bundled over 80% of total supply … moreover they already cashed out $15M+ and still hold around 70%.”

Unrevealed XYZ founder Yokai Ryujin raised suspicion about the project based on how the memecoin’s website was registered on reduced-price domain registrar Namecheap.com, and the memecoin being launched at 1 a.m. local time. In a follow-up post, Yokai Ryujin wrote that Namecheap has suspended the memecoin project’s website domain.

Numerous X accounts of celebrities and government authorities have been hacked in the past to promote fake memecoins. These security breaches, often capitalizing on the speculative frenzy surrounding memecoins, are growing more prevalent. 

Recent high-profile targets include the official X account of Nasdaq and that of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, demonstrating the vulnerability of accounts on the social media platform.

The Central African Republic made headlines in 2022 when it became the second country in the world to accept bitcoin as a legal tender, following El Salvador. 

Later that year, the country, under President Touadéra’s leadership, launched Sango Coin as its national cryptocurrency to create a digital economy based on the tokenization of its minerals.

However, in 2023, the country’s parliament repealed the legislation that made bitcoin its legal tender, according to a news report from Central Banking.

Update: The article has been updated to include more details about warnings from some crypto community members regarding the project.