President of the Central African Republic Launches CAR Memecoin, Sparking Deepfake and Scam Concerns

Highlights:

• The Central African Republic launches its memecoin to unite people and boost development.
• Despite a surge to $527 million, CAR memecoin’s value drops to $460 million on Feb. 10.
• Suspicious activity surrounds CAR memecoin, with deepfake concerns and domain registration issues.

The Central African Republic has entered the crypto space with the launch of its own memecoin, CAR. The announcement came on February 9 from President Faustin-Archange Touadéra’s official X account. He described the project as an experiment to unite people, boost national development, and place the country on the global stage.

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.

Contract: 7oBYdEhV4GkXC19ZfgAvXpJWp2Rn9pm1Bx2cVNxFpump

— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) February 9, 2025

Launched at 10:25 p.m. UTC on the Solana-based memecoin platform Pump.fun, the CAR memecoin has surged to a peak valuation of $527 million, according to DexScreener data. However, as of February 10, its value has decreased to $460 million.

A subsequent social media post featured a video announcement of the memecoin launch, seemingly showcasing President Touadéra himself. “The Central African Republic has always believed in the power and the importance of a strong community,” the video announcement said. 

In another post, he connected the initiative to the country’s previous pro-crypto stance, emphasizing that he was the second global leader to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

As the second president in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, I have always recognized the potential of crypto and its benefits on a global scale.

For all information about CAR Meme, visit https://t.co/kwd5NGxoZG

— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) February 9, 2025

The memecoin project launched a dedicated X account, @Carmeme_news, to share daily updates and announcements about the token. However, the platform has since suspended the account. President Touadéra’s X account mentioned that the project is working with the platform to restore the account as soon as possible.

We are working with @X to get @CARMeme_News back as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the token supply has been securely locked through @streamflow_fi, according to the distribution plan, emission groups, and release schedule detailed on our website.

— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) February 9, 2025

Controversy Surrounds CAR Memecoin Amid Rising Fraudulent Launches and Suspicious Activity

The timing of this controversy is significant, as the crypto world has recently witnessed a rise in fraudulent memecoin launches. Just days earlier, scammers took over the X accounts of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter to promote fake memecoins.

Skepticism grew after AI detection tools analyzed the president’s announcement video. One deepfake detection model, Seferbekov, flagged an 82% chance that the video was AI-generated, while another model, Ensemble, also raised concerns. However, two other AI tools, Avatrify and Deepware’s checker, found no signs of manipulation.

The situation escalated when X user Skynet Insights warned, “Do not buy $CAR, it’s a scam. They bundled over 80% of total supply … moreover they already cashed out $15M+ and still hold around 70%.”

Moreover, in a February 10 post on X, Yokai Ryujin, the founder of Unrevealed XYZ, cautioned that the registration process for the CAR memecoin’s domain on namecheap.com seemed unusual for a president or a country. He pointed out that the domain had only been registered three days prior. Namecheap confirmed that they had suspended the problematic service linked to the CAR memecoin. However, at the time of their statement, the official website, car.meme, remained online.

We have suspended the abusive service. Thank you.

— Namecheap.com (@Namecheap) February 10, 2025

Central African Republic’s Crypto Journey

The Central African Republic has embraced cryptocurrency. In April 2022, President Touadéra made Bitcoin legal tender in the country and signed a crypto regulatory framework bill into law. Later that year, under President Touadéra’s leadership, the country introduced Sango Coin as its national cryptocurrency. The goal was to establish a digital economy driven by the tokenization of its mineral resources.

However, in March the following year, CAR repealed the law making Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal tender after facing strong criticism from other members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa.