Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced that in June, over 1,700 hectares of land in the region will be tokenized through the Solana-based meme coin CAR. The meme coin has long sparked suspicion among traders.
On May 30, Touadéra posted on his X account that he has signed a presidential decree that would tokenize over 1,700 hectares of land and make it available on the Solana (SOL) chain by June 2025. The land concession would be available online for traders across the globe by purchasing the meme coin CAR, which Touadéra dubs the “national meme coin” of the state.
The land is reportedly located in the western area of Bosongo village, 45 kilometers west of the nation’s capital, Bangui. The presidential decree refers to the country’s mining code and its 2023 laws regarding the tokenization of natural resources. This implies that the land may be intended for mining purposes.
After Touadéra’s announcement on X, the Central African Republic meme coin jumped more than 20% based on data from CoinGecko. CAR’s daily trading volume also rose by 31.9% compared to the previous day of trading, indicating a rise in trading activity. The Solana-based token has seen major gains in the past few weeks, rising by more than 182% in the past week and more than 216% in the past month.
The token is currently up by 10.7% and is trading hands at $0.05. It has accumulated a market cap of $53 million since its launch last February. The token’s market cap briefly soared past $884 million, before crashing not long after the launch.
Last month, the top 100 holders of CAR were invited to Dubai to meet with Central African Republic President Touadéra, in a move similar to Donald Trump’s invite-only dinner for the top 220 holders of the official TRUMP (TRUMP) meme coin on May 22.
Controversy surrounding Central African Republic’s meme coin
On Feb. 10, the Central African Republic announced the launch of its own meme coin, CAR. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra called the project an experiment designed to “unite people, support national development, and put the Central African Republic on the world stage in a unique way.”
After a meteoric rise to an all-time high of $0.775 on launch day, the meme coin crashed. Its market cap fell more than 50% from $884 million to $460 million. The drop was fueled by deepfake allegations, website and account suspensions, and questionable domain registrations which made traders suspicious of whether the project was actually trustworthy.
Several AI detection tools flagged the president’s announcement video as AI-generated. Moreover, the meme coin’s official X account was suspended suddenly without explanation. The president then went on X to clarify that his team was working to restore the account as soon as possible.
Yokai Ryujin, founder of UnrevealedXYZ, also pointed out that the meme coin’s registered domain was registered on a budget-friendly domain provider only three days before the announcement. According to Ryujin, this was odd considering the token is supposed to be a government-backed initiative.
Shortly after, Namecheap suspended the website, confirming that it had been flagged as an “abusive service.”
At press time, the president’s post included a link to a website which contains the description for the meme coin and its purpose. The site also contained the coin’s address and the exchanges that list it.
“Born as a meme, built for utility. $CAR started as a presidential meme coin —now we’re driving toward real-world impact,” wrote the website’s description.
