A video from the Central African Republic (CAR) has sparked suspicion just as the associated memecoin’s value reaches $527 million. And the president wants to fund school rebuilding and furnishing.
Faustin-Archange Touadéra unveiled the Central African Republic’s official memecoin on X, but two AI deepfake detectors and critics remain unconvinced.
On Feb. 9, as the memecoin’s market cap surged to $530 million, at least two AI deepfake detectors questioned the authenticity of the Central African Republic President’s announcement video.
On February 9, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra posted on X to introduce the country’s official memecoin. He described the initiative as an “experiment“ aimed at driving national development and boosting the nation’s international profile.
The CAR memecoin launched on Pump.fun, a Solana-based memecoin platform, at 10:25 PM UTC. Since its debut, it has surged, reaching a peak valuation of $527 million, according to DexScreener.
The token’s official website features a video statement from President Touadéra and a tokenomics page outlining its planned supply distribution.
Deepware, a free deepfake detection service, analyzed the video and found it suspicious. One of its AI models assessed an 82% chance that the video was a deepfake.
However, the deepfake detection models Avatrify and Deepware’s own system did not classify the video as a deepfake.
Critics remain skeptical, arguing that hackers may have compromised Touadéra’s X account to launch the token.
Yokai Ryujin, the founder of Unrevealed XYZ, raised doubts on X on February 10 about the CAR memecoin’s domain registration on Namecheap. He claimed the process did not resemble something a president or country would do and pointed out that the registration occurred only three days ago.
“Would be weird for their president to launch a coin…the language/phraseology used in the tweet is weird…and the time is midnight local time. [Wouldn’t] make sense for them to launch at that time,” added pseudonymous user Crypto Dreamer.
“Also their official language is French. The Tweet is in English only, with no French version,” they added.
In response, Namecheap announced in a follow-up X post that they had “suspended the abusive service.” However, the car.meme website remained live at the time of reporting.
X suspended @Carmeme_news, the official account for the CAR memecoin, but President Touadéra claimed he was actively “working with X” to have it reinstated as soon as possible.
In recent weeks, hackers have breached multiple official X accounts, including those of the former Malaysian prime minister and Solana DEX aggregator Jupiter, to promote memecoin scams.
DexScreener’s token distribution data aligns closely with the tokenomics listed on the project’s website. Solscan shows that one wallet holds 33.31% of the supply, while another wallet contains 25%.
Similarly, two other wallets account for 9.81% and 8.39% of the total supply, with one possibly designated for charitable causes.
Despite prior commitments, the 20% portion of CAR supply intended for liquidity has not appeared in any liquidity pool.
President Touadéra thrust cryptocurrency into the spotlight in the Central African Republic in April 2022 when he granted Bitcoin legal tender status and passed legislation to regulate the industry.
After adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, the Central African Republic introduced Sango Coin, a cryptocurrency designed to stimulate foreign investment by linking citizenship to token ownership.
However, in March 2023, the CAR revoked Bitcoin’s legal tender status along with other cryptocurrencies, following intense criticism from its Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa counterparts.
Six hours after announcing the launch of the $CAR memecoin, the President announced $50,000 worth of the tokens will be allocated over the next 30 days to support rebuilding and furninshing schools, thus giving students “a better chance for a better future”.
In a video showing the condition of a school in the country, the president wrote “This high school has been deteriorating rapidly over the past few years, putting students at risk of losing their access to education. WIth the help of $CAR meme, we are able to support the rebuilding and furnishing of the school, giving students a chance for a better future.”
“$50,000 worth of tokens will be allocated over the next 30 days from country development to support these repairs.”
The Central African Republic president will be the second president to launch a memecoin following president Donald Trump but would be the first to launch a country-specific memecoin.
