CAR’s Touadéra confirms $CAR land tokenisation platform launch, eyes natural resources next

The Central African Republic has officially launched its land tokenisation platform this June, following initial announcements in late May. The platform allows anyone in the world to buy tokenised land parcels using the national memecoin, $CAR, on the Solana blockchain.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra confirmed the rollout in a June 3 post on X, calling it a “new chapter for digital ownership.” Over 1,700 hectares of land—already cleared, subdivided, and connected by roads—are up for acquisition, primarily for agriculture or construction. These parcels do not involve mining activity.

The available plots are located west of Bosongo village, around 45 kilometres from the capital, Bangui. The project is being carried out under a 2023 national law governing the tokenisation of land and mineral resources. According to the signed presidential decree, ownership of the land is now recorded in tokenised form, with payments accepted exclusively in $CAR tokens.

Following the announcement, the $CAR token saw a brief rebound, jumping over 20% in price with trading volume up 32%, according to CoinGecko.

The $CAR coin originally launched in February 2025, branded by President Touadéra as a national crypto experiment to unite the people and attract global attention. “The CAR has always believed in the power and importance of a strong community,” he said at the time.

Within hours of its debut, $CAR surged toward a $1 billion market cap. But the hype quickly turned to controversy. Namecheap briefly suspended the token’s website, citing links to “abusive services.” X deactivated its main social media account, while deepfake detection tools flagged the launch video—filmed against a green screen—as potentially fake. President Touadéra’s press office insisted the video was “100% authentic,” and later confirmed it was recorded in French with an English overdub produced by an undisclosed Paris-based firm—though questions about its legitimacy remain.

Adding to the uncertainty, blockchain data revealed that four wallets held over 76% of the $CAR supply. As of this week, the token is down roughly 96.7% from its all-time high, now trading around $0.05 with a market cap of $76 million. The government says the token supply is locked.

Despite these hiccups, the government is moving forward with the project. Notably, $50,000 in early $CAR proceeds has been earmarked to refurbish a deteriorating school, addressing one of the country’s many infrastructure needs.

Despite its turbulent start, $CAR now serves as the gateway for a new experiment: tokenising real land to attract foreign investment. But Touadéra’s ambitions extend beyond agriculture plots.

“After land, we look to resources,” he revealed. “We are currently developing a dedicated legal and technical framework for natural resource tokenisation, aligned with both national mining laws and global blockchain standards.”

The broader goal, Touadéra says, is to use blockchain technology to create transparency, attract foreign investment, and eventually expand into the tokenisation of natural resources like gold and diamonds.”A new era of access and transparency begins,” Touadéra wrote, emphasising that future steps must be “professional, responsible, sustainable, decentralized, and transparent.”

The Central African Republic remains one of the world’s poorest nations, with over two-thirds of the population living below the poverty line. It continues to grapple with instability and ranks near the bottom of Transparency International’s global corruption index.

The country’s decision to link real-world assets to a memecoin is an unusually bold use of blockchain in a fragile economy. Unlike typical memecoins driven by internet hype, $CAR attempts to anchor value from state-backed land and infrastructure. Its launch also comes at a time when political figures, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who introduced the $TRUMP token in January, are increasingly experimenting with crypto, signalling a broader shift in how leaders engage with digital assets.

Whether this experiment will generate meaningful investment or become another cautionary tale in the memecoin market remains to be seen.