Crypto in Africa

$CAR President’s memecoin: real or a hack?

Faustine-Archange Touadéra appeared to have announced the launch of the $CAR memecoin on social media in a manner typical with hacking scams.

Design by Omowunmi Babalola for Mariblock.

Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, announced on Sunday night that the country is launching a national memecoin, $CAR.

But questions remain—was this a genuine initiative or the result of a hacked account?

The details

In a post on X, President Touadéra claimed the $CAR token was created to unite people, support the country's development, and put it on the global stage.
He reinforced this message in a video, where he endorsed the memecoin and highlighted his government's pro-crypto stance, noting that the Central African Republic is only the second country to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender.
Touadéra shared links to a website for more information on $CAR and a social media page for updates.
However, the website is currently inaccessible, and the X account has been taken down.

A closer look suggests the launch may not be legitimate. It follows a pattern where high-profile social media accounts are hacked to promote memecoins.
When fed into a deepfake checker, Touadéra’s video turned out to be 82% artificial intelligence-generated and 60% suspicious content.
Typically, the president makes his social media posts in French but seemed to have made a rare exception while announcing the memecoin, tweeting in English.
A closer look at the coin’s numbers onchain shows that it rose as high as $0.68 in value less than three hours after it launched but has gone on a steady slide since.
Presently, more than 67% of its total circulating supply is concentrated in three wallets, a tactic commonly associated with pump-and-dump schemes.
Neither Touadéra nor any representatives of the CAR government have confirmed or denied the development.

The hacking of social media accounts belonging to public figures and government agencies to promote memecoins is becoming increasingly common.
On Sunday, February 9, the official X account of Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI Kenya) was compromised and used to promote a scam token called $DCI.
In response, DCI Kenya issued a statement acknowledging the breach and confirming that an investigation is underway.
Last week, Tanzanian billionaire, Mohammed Dewji’s X account was also hacked and used to promote a $TANZANIA memecoin.
The compromised tweets have been removed, and Dewji has issued a statement confirming that scammers had gained unauthorized access to his X account.
Other popular personalities and firms such as Nasdaq, Jupiter, Drake and Lara and Tiffany Trump have had their X accounts hacked and used to promote memecoins all in the last six months.