CAR memecoin reaches $527M peak amid deepfake doubts

The launch of the Central African Republic's (CRYPTO:CAR) official memecoin, announced by President Faustion-Archange Touadera, has sparked significant scepticism.

The token quickly reached a peak market capitalisation of $527 million on February 9.

Touadera described the memecoin as a "national experiment" aimed at promoting the country's development and international presence.

The coin was launched on the Solana-based (CRYPTO:SOL) platform Pump.fun and has stirred interest with its rapid valuation surge.

However, skepticism about the legitimacy of the announcement arose after two AI deepfake detection tools flagged a video statement from the president.

One tool, Deepware, identified the video as suspicious, while another claimed an 82% likelihood that the video was a deepfake.

Interestingly, two other models failed to detect the video as being manipulated.

Critics have raised concerns that the announcement could be part of a sophisticated hack.

In particular, the domain registration for the CAR memecoin on namecheap.com was seen as unusual by some.

Yokai Ryujin, founder of Unrevealed XYZ, pointed out that the registration occurred just days before the announcement, which seemed odd for an official state initiative.

Namecheap has since suspended the service, though the car.meme website remains online.

Other observers also questioned the timing and language of the post, pointing out that it was made at midnight local time and only in English, while the country’s official language is French.

Furthermore, the memecoin’s official X account (@Carmeme_news) was suspended, although Touadera stated efforts to have it restored. 

The memecoin’s tokenomics, however, appear largely in line with the data from Dexscreener, showing significant holdings in a few wallets, though the promised liquidity pool allocation has yet to materialise.

The CAR has previously shown interest in cryptocurrencies, adopting Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) as legal tender in April 2022.

However, following some political and financial challenges, the country later repealed its cryptocurrency legal tender status in March 2023.

At the time of reporting, the Central African Republic Meme (CAR) price was $0.267.