Central African Republic launches memecoin

Porters shuffle back and forth to transport sand up to brokers on the banks of the Ubangui River. The sand industry in Bangui employs hundreds of workers, relying on only wooden dugout canoes and rudimentary tools. Photo / Amaury Falt-Brown, AFP

The Central African Republic, a poverty-stricken and perennially unstable country despite its vast mineral wealth, has launched a memecoin called $CAR, which had a tumultuous debut, according to experts.

A memecoin is a cryptocurrency that rides on the popularity of a viral personality or phenomenon on the internet and is often seen as a purely speculative asset.

Centrafrican President Faustin Archange Touadera announced the launch on his X account over the weekend.

“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,” he said overnight, recalling that his country was the second in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, after El Salvador.

He hailed its resounding success, but its value plunged about 90% on Monday, according to specialist sites, which raised fears it could be a scam.

“The infrastructure of the project raises questions. The official domain, car.meme, was registered through Namecheap, a low-cost domain provider typically used by individuals or independent developers, but rarely by government institutions,” the beingcrypto website pointed out.

The site added the domain was “registered only three days before the official announcement, which does not correspond to the classic practices of a state-wide project”.

Centrafrican Mining Minister Rufin Benam Beltoungou, in a bid to douse suspicions, said in a statement issued shortly after the launch that the $CAR was “a project of the Ministry of Mines and Geology ... in collaboration with the company Barn$ley”.

According to the Cryptoast website, a previous Central African cryptocurrency, Sango, “now seems to have ended in failure”.

© Agence France-Presse