A video of Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announcing the country’s official memecoin has raised suspicions, with at least two deepfake AI detectors flagging it as potentially fake.
Meanwhile, the Solana-based token skyrocketed to a $527 million market cap just hours after its launch. Touadéra’s X account announced the memecoin on Feb. 9, calling it an “experiment” to boost national development and global recognition. The token launched on Pump.fun at 10:25 PM UTC and quickly gained traction.
However, skepticism arose when Deepware’s AI detection tool suggested an 82% chance the president’s video was a deepfake. Other tools, Avatrify and Deepware’s secondary checker, did not confirm the claim.
Concerns grew when security researcher Yokai Ryujin noted that the CAR memecoin’s domain was registered just three days before the announcement—something unusual for an official government initiative.
Namecheap later suspended the domain’s registration, but the website remained live. The president stated he was collaborating with X to recover the suspended token account, although the platform did not confirm this claim.
The tweet’s wording, together with its release timing, raised additional questions among critics. The critics noted that CAR uses French as its official language, yet the announcement came out exclusively in English. Several individuals expressed doubt about why a national project would begin at midnight according to local time.
Despite the controversy, the token’s tokenomics roughly match its official website data. However, the promised 20% liquidity allocation has yet to be added to a liquidity pool.
CAR has a history with crypto, having briefly adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2022 and launching Sango Coin to attract foreign investment. However, the country later repealed its crypto-friendly laws in 2023 under pressure from regional economic authorities.
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