Central African Republic’s $CAR Memecoin Soars to $590M+ — Legit or a Hoax?

On February 10, the Central African Republic (CAR) made an unexpected entry into the crypto market with the launch of its own memecoin, $CAR. The announcement came directly from President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s official X account, where he described the initiative as an experiment in national unity, economic development, and global recognition.

“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,” read the official post.

The launch aligns with CAR’s history of pro-crypto policies. In 2022, President Touadéra made headlines by adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, making CAR the second country in the world to do so after El Salvador.

$CAR debuted on Pump.fun, a Solana-based memecoin launchpad, at 10:25 PM UTC. Within a day, the token’s market capitalization soared to a peak of $590 million, according to CoinGecko. 

By Monday morning, it was trading at approximately $0.26, with a total market cap of around $272 million. The explosive growth has caught the attention of the global crypto community.

Deepfake Claims Raise Questions About Legitimacy

Despite the excitement, skepticism looms over the project’s authenticity. The token’s official website features a video statement supposedly from President Touadéra, but AI deepfake detection tools have flagged it as potentially manipulated.

• Deepware’s free deepfake checker suggested an 82% chance that the video was altered.

• Avatrify and Deepware’s in-house tool did not identify any manipulation.

This discrepancy has fueled speculation that the token launch could be a sophisticated scam.

Critics argue that the domain registration process for the CAR memecoin’s website does not resemble that of an official government project.

Moreover, the announcement was made at midnight local time—an odd choice for a major government initiative. The official language of CAR is French, yet the entire announcement was made only in English.

Yokai Ryujin, founder of Unrevealed XYZ, pointed out inconsistencies in the website’s domain registration on Namecheap, stating, “This does not look like what a president or country would do.”

In response, Namecheap suspended the domain registration service, but the website remains online. Meanwhile, the official X account dedicated to $CAR (@Carmeme_news) was suspended, with President Touadéra claiming he is working with X to restore access.

Recent Hacks Add to Concerns

The crypto space has seen a wave of high-profile social media hacks used to promote fraudulent memecoins. Recently, scammers hijacked the X accounts of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter to push pump-and-dump schemes. 

Given this trend, some suspect that Touadéra’s account may have been compromised to promote an unauthorized token launch.

Tokenomics Raise Further Doubts

The tokenomics of $CAR reveal an uneven distribution:

• 33.31% of the total supply is held in a single wallet.

• 25% is controlled by another address.

• 9.81% and 8.39% are stored in two separate wallets, possibly earmarked for charity.

• 20% was promised for liquidity but has yet to be added to a liquidity pool.

These numbers raise concerns about centralization and whether $CAR is a genuine state-backed initiative or a speculative asset controlled by a few entities.

CAR has a controversial history with cryptocurrency. In April 2022, the nation adopted Bitcoin as legal tender and introduced Sango Coin to attract foreign investment through tokenized citizenship. However, by March 2023, the government repealed the law recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender, following pressure from the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa.