ZacG on Nostr: With world leaders launching meme coins becoming a trend, here’s what I discovered ...
With world leaders launching meme coins becoming a trend, here’s what I discovered while researching the Central African Republic’s government-backed meme coin $CAR for HRF’s financialfreedomreport.org🧵
On February 10th, CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced on X the launch of a government backed meme coin called $CAR claiming it will “unite people” and “support national development.”
The reality is actually more simple: meme coins are largely speculative assets, prone to pump-and-dump cycles, and often serving as vehicles for insiders to profit at the expense of those who buy in.
CAR’s 1 billion token supply was carved up predictably: 35% to ‘country development,’ 25% to ‘creators & company,’ 20.7% for liquidity, 10% for charity, and just 9.3% for public distribution. In short, insiders controlled the vast majority.
Within a day of its launch, $CAR shot to a market cap of $900 million before crashing spectacularly, plunging 97% from its peak and leaving the vast majority of investors holding worthless tokens.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because President Toudéra pulled a similar stunt only a couple years earlier.
In 2022, they launched Sango Coin, a token that promised citizenship and land to its investors. The reality? Only 7.5% of the supply was sold, and those who did “buy in” did not receive what was promised. The official Sango Coin website is also non functional.
They even convinced people to donate their Bitcoin to “back” Sango Coin, then took all the donated funds.
Even before Sango, CAR made global headlines by adopting Bitcoin as “legal tender.” Unfortunately this was less about freedom and individual sovereignty and more about optics. In other words, a marketing ploy to propel the Sango Coin scam.
Regardless of the intentions, Bitcoin as legal tender didn't last long as CAR bowed to pressure from the regional monetary union, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, and walked back Bitcoin’s legal tender status and their paper promises.
The recurring theme in CAR is that the government continues to pedal schemes they claim will benefit the public, but instead repeatedly benefits regime insiders. This came at the opportunity cost of instead advancing decentralized, open, and censorship-resistant money that can actually benefit such an impoverished population.
The $CAR meme coin is just the latest gimmick and reports are already surfacing that regime insiders cashed out $40M.
With a second scam in just as many years, this clearly isn’t about financial innovation: it’s about power and profit for the few.
The real tragedy? CAR’s people deserve financial freedom.
#Bitcoin could provide a way to escape the CFA system that is deeply rooted in monetary colonialism, but instead, the government has chosen speculative tokens that enrich elites at the expense of the public.
Until then, its citizens remain trapped in a system where politicians experiment with money, and the people pay the price.
On February 10th, CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced on X the launch of a government backed meme coin called $CAR claiming it will “unite people” and “support national development.”
The reality is actually more simple: meme coins are largely speculative assets, prone to pump-and-dump cycles, and often serving as vehicles for insiders to profit at the expense of those who buy in.
CAR’s 1 billion token supply was carved up predictably: 35% to ‘country development,’ 25% to ‘creators & company,’ 20.7% for liquidity, 10% for charity, and just 9.3% for public distribution. In short, insiders controlled the vast majority.
Within a day of its launch, $CAR shot to a market cap of $900 million before crashing spectacularly, plunging 97% from its peak and leaving the vast majority of investors holding worthless tokens.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because President Toudéra pulled a similar stunt only a couple years earlier.
In 2022, they launched Sango Coin, a token that promised citizenship and land to its investors. The reality? Only 7.5% of the supply was sold, and those who did “buy in” did not receive what was promised. The official Sango Coin website is also non functional.
They even convinced people to donate their Bitcoin to “back” Sango Coin, then took all the donated funds.
Even before Sango, CAR made global headlines by adopting Bitcoin as “legal tender.” Unfortunately this was less about freedom and individual sovereignty and more about optics. In other words, a marketing ploy to propel the Sango Coin scam.
Regardless of the intentions, Bitcoin as legal tender didn't last long as CAR bowed to pressure from the regional monetary union, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, and walked back Bitcoin’s legal tender status and their paper promises.
The recurring theme in CAR is that the government continues to pedal schemes they claim will benefit the public, but instead repeatedly benefits regime insiders. This came at the opportunity cost of instead advancing decentralized, open, and censorship-resistant money that can actually benefit such an impoverished population.
The $CAR meme coin is just the latest gimmick and reports are already surfacing that regime insiders cashed out $40M.
With a second scam in just as many years, this clearly isn’t about financial innovation: it’s about power and profit for the few.
The real tragedy? CAR’s people deserve financial freedom.
#Bitcoin could provide a way to escape the CFA system that is deeply rooted in monetary colonialism, but instead, the government has chosen speculative tokens that enrich elites at the expense of the public.
Until then, its citizens remain trapped in a system where politicians experiment with money, and the people pay the price.