The Central African Republic has launched a meme coin in what President Faustin-Archange Touadera said was a bid to raise the profile of one of the world’s poorest countries.
Mr Touadera announced the move on X on Sunday, nearly three years after his government became the first in Africa and the second in the world behind El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
Meme coins are crypto tokens featuring branding or names referencing memes or internet trends. They are usually highly volatile and have scant practical use.
U.S. President Donald Trump launched a meme coin known as $Trump in January that quickly surged, reaching a peak of over $14.5 billion in overall market value before slumping.
Despite rich reserves of gold and diamonds, the Central African Republic is deeply impoverished and undeveloped and has been gripped by rebel violence for years.
The $CAR meme coin is “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 uniquely,” Mr Touadera said on X.
X suspended a separate account created for updates and announcements on $CAR as of Monday morning. Mr Touadera said the government was trying to get it back online as soon as possible.
The $CAR token was trading at $0.22 on Monday morning, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinGecko.
(Reuters/NAN)
