Central African Republic debuts memecoin managed by state-owned mineral firm
President Touadéra cast the Central African Republic as being at the “forefront” of a “revolution” being wrought by blockchain
CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra | UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré/"Official visit President of the Central African Republic" (CC license)
This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
In today’s edition of sentences I never expected to write: The Central African Republic launched a Solana memecoin over the weekend, announced by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra on X.
President Touadéra has long been a crypto fan, following El Salvador’s lead in adopting bitcoin as legal tender in 2022. This latest foray into the blockchain could prove far more lucrative for the state: The CAR token peaked at over $800 million in market capitalization, according to DEX Screener. That’s nearly a third of the nation’s 2023 GDP of $2.76 billion.
As is always the case with memecoins, however, CAR quickly crashed and currently holds $50 million in market cap.
The obvious comparison here is to Donald Trump’s inauguration eve memecoin, but unlike TRUMP, CAR claims to have a purpose. 45% of CAR’s supply is earmarked for “country development” and “charity,” the project’s official website claims. CAR tokens have been locked up on the Solana token distribution platform Streamflow.
The CAR memecoin’s website and services are managed by COMIGEM, according to its terms and conditions. COMIGEM is a state-owned mineral buying office in the Central African Republic. 25% of the CAR supply is set aside for “Creators & Company,” which would presumably refer to COMIGEM. An email associated with CAR did not return requests for comment.
Jupiter, the Solana DEX aggregator, was able to verify that it is in contact with the team behind the token, and it asked the team to make its blockchain contract uncancelable.
This afternoon, Touadéra posted a video of a high school in the country that is “deteriorating rapidly” and said $50,000 worth of CAR tokens will be allocated within the next 30 days to repair the school.
In a video posted to X earlier today, Touadéra celebrated the memecoin launch “success” and cast the Central African Republic as being at the “forefront” of a “revolution” being wrought by blockchain.
The token’s market capitalization jumped some $200 million shortly after the president’s post, before quickly dipping lower than where it had been trading before.
Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.
Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.
Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.
The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
