$CAR, The First Nation-State Memecoin Raises Questions

When the President of the United States launched $TRUMP, social media trolls joked that nation states would soon start launching memecoins of their own. 

Faustin-Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African Republic, has made this fantasy a reality, launching the world’s first-ever country meme coin, $CAR.

Can a memecoin truly “unite people and support national development” at this scale, or is $CAR plagued by too many red flags?

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra Launches $CAR

Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra shocked the world on February 10th when he announced the launch of $CAR, the official Central African Republic memecoin. President Touadéra describes $CAR as an experiment designed to illustrate the unifying power of memes and support national development.

According to the token’s website, 35% of $CAR’s supply has been allocated to ‘Country Development’, with a further 10% set aside for ‘Charity’. 

Tokens have been locked in vesting contracts via StreamFlow, but it should be noted that the vesting schedule for ‘Country Development’ can be canceled by the owner of the contract. Despite the altruistic labeling, details surrounding how these tokens could be spent are not forthcoming.

Within hours of its launch via no-code token deployer pump.fun, $CAR exploded to an all-time high valuation of over $800M and attracting more than $700M in trading volume acriss onchain pools. $CAR has since pulled back, currently trading hands at a $200M market capitalization.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and the Central African Republic are no stranger to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In 2022, the Central African Republic became the second country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. 

However, Bitcoin’s status as a national currency in the Central African Republic didn’t last long. In 2023, the decision was reversed due to political instability, inadequate infrastructure and economic challenges.

Solana Community Expresses Concern over $CAR Red Flags

While much of the crypto community celebrated the launch as a critical step forward for cryptocurrency adoption, others are watching $CAR with a skeptical eye.

Scam coins launched from compromised social media accounts have become commonplace in today’s market. 

While the coin’s launch is accompanied by a video of President Touadéra officially endorsing $CAR, social media commentators argue the video could easily have been created using AI to impersonate the Head of State. All communications coming from President Touadéra’s account regarding $CAR have been in English, while his previous posts were all written in French.

Within hours of launch, the $CAR memecoin’s official site and 𝕏 account were suspended. According to Namecheap, the domain was only registered 4 days earlier.

Additionally, $CAR was launched at around 1 AM in the Central African Republic, a time when the government’s cybersecurity staff might be slower to react to comprised accounts. Outside of President Touadéra’s 𝕏 account, the Central African Republic has yet to make any official announcement regarding the coin’s existence.

The Start of a New Global Financial Landscape?

If $CAR stands the test of time, other nation states may begin launching memecoins of their own to support national development. 

While this may help countries generate a significant amount of wealth in a short period of time, CountryFi memecoins endorsed by government agencies could open a can of geo-political worms. 

Similar to concerns surrounding $TRUMP, political memecoins could be used to anonymously donate wealth to foreign governments.

On the other hand, CountryFi memecoins could herald the emergence of a new global financial landscape, enabling traders to speculate on the memetic influence of nation-states in a novel and unique way.

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