Key Takeaways
- The government of the Central African Republic has pursued a string of crypto initiatives since 2022.
- A recent investigation suggests crypto was merely a front for fraud and corruption.
- The report suggests money raised via national schemes like Sango Coin and $CAR went straight into officials’ pockets.
Under President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the government of the Central African Republic (CAR) has pursued an ambitious crypto agenda.
National schemes like Sango Coin and the $CAR memecoin were pitched as vehicles for economic growth and modernization. But an investigation by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime (GIATC) has uncovered evidence of widespread corruption.
The Wartorn African Nation That Went All-In on Crypto
Touadéra’s government first embraced crypto in April 2022, when the CAR adopted Bitcoin as legal tender.
The move was framed as a leap toward financial sovereignty and economic empowerment, even though fewer than 16% of Central Africans had access to electricity, and mobile connectivity remained sparse.
A few months later, the government launched Sango Coin, a national cryptocurrency marketed as the backbone of a new digital economy.
The scheme promised tokenized access to land, mining rights, and even passports for foreign investors who purchased the token. At the same time, the government floated ambitious plans for large-scale infrastructure projects, such as “Crypto City” and “Crypto Island.” But have any benefits for ordinary citizens ever materialized
Although the Constitutional Court struck down several of the project’s proposed incentives, the CAR’s broader crypto push continued.
After Sango Coin failed to gain traction, selling less than ten percent of its target supply, Touadéra’s government pivoted again in 2025, unveiling the $CAR memecoin.
However, more than three years into the CAR’s crypto experiment, there is little evidence that the government’s initiatives have created material benefits for citizens.
Crypto-Kleptocracy in the CAR
In a country that faces ongoing sectarian violence and periodic outbreaks of armed conflict, the government’s attempts to raise money through coin offerings fall significantly short of a serious development program. They resemble the same old kleptocracy with a crypto twist.
The GIATC investigation found zero evidence that revenues from the sale of $CAR tokens were declared as public income or incorporated into the national budget. The whereabouts of around two million euros raised from Sango Coin also remain uncertain.
Meanwhile, an analysis of documents and videos Touadéra shared to demonstrate the CAR’s land tokenization program found that most of the purported proof was generated by AI.
On-chain data suggests $CAR was little more than a classic pump-and-dump executed at the highest level of government.
Minutes before the memecoin was announced, a single address acquired roughly 79% of the total token supply at minimal cost. This structure allowed insiders to benefit from a rapid price surge, during which the token briefly reached a market capitalization of nearly $1 billion, before its value collapsed by more than 75%.
Criminal Ties to the Central African Republic
Authorities in the EU and the U.S. have repeatedly sanctioned CAR-based companies over illegal mining activity, corruption, and ties to the Russian mercenary group, Wagner.
Against this backdrop, the GIATC report argues that opaque digital asset flows serve as the ideal back channel for illicit payments. Given the known relationships between sanctioned entities and government officials, the CAR’s crypto initiatives create a “profound risk of state capture by criminal networks,” it warns.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
