BANGUI (Reuters) – The Central African Republic has introduced a meme coin as part of President Faustin-Archange Touadera’s efforts to elevate the global recognition of one of the world’s most impoverished nations. Touadera made this announcement late on Sunday, almost three years after his administration made history as the first in Africa and the second globally, following El Salvador, to embrace bitcoin as a legal form of currency.
Meme coins are digital tokens that feature branding or names linked to internet memes or trends. They are known for their extreme volatility and limited practical utility. Just last month, former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a meme coin named $Trump, which experienced a rapid surge, peaking at a market value exceeding $14.5 billion before plummeting.
Despite possessing substantial reserves of gold and diamonds, the Central African Republic grapples with severe poverty, underdevelopment, and prolonged unrest due to rebel violence. President Touadera views the $CAR meme coin as an experimental initiative aimed at illustrating how a simple meme can unify people, bolster national progress, and showcase the Central African Republic on the global platform in a distinctive manner.
An official account established for disseminating updates and announcements related to $CAR was unexpectedly suspended as of Monday morning. Touadera expressed the government’s commitment to swiftly restoring the account’s functionality.
As of Monday morning, the $CAR token was being traded at a value of $0.22, as documented by the cryptocurrency price monitoring service CoinGecko.
(Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
