On February 10, the Central African Republic (CAR) made an unexpected move into the crypto market by launching its own memecoin, $CAR. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra described the project as an experiment to support national unity and economic development.
Launch and Memecoin Details
$CAR debuted on Pump.fun, a Solana-based memecoin launchpad, at 10:25 PM UTC. Within a day, the token's market capitalization peaked at $590 million. By Monday morning, it was trading at approximately $0.26, with a market cap of around $272 million. This explosive growth has attracted the attention of the crypto community.
Legitimacy Doubts
Doubts arise from a video allegedly from President Touadéra, flagged by deepfake detection tools as potentially manipulated. Additionally, questions were raised about the domain registration on Namecheap and the unusual time for the announcement. In response, Namecheap suspended domain services, yet the site remains online. The official X account reports efforts to restore access.
Tokenomics Issues of $CAR
The tokenomics of $CAR raise centralization concerns: 33.31% of the total supply is held in a single wallet, 25% in another, 9.81% and 8.39% distributed among two wallets, possibly for charity. These figures raise doubts about whether $CAR is a genuine state-backed project or a speculative asset.
The Central African Republic has once again drawn the spotlight of the crypto community. Questions about the legitimacy and distribution of $CAR remain central to discussions and warranted concerns. Regardless of the project's intentions, for many investors and observers, it remains unclear whether $CAR is a genuine government initiative or a scam.
