The president of the Central African Republic launched a national memcoin. Within hours, its capitalization reached a third of the country’s GDP

The President of the Central African Republic, Faustin Archange Touadera, has launched a national memecoin, $Car, on the Solana blockchain. The announcement was made on Sunday, February 9, according to Meduza.

According to the source cited, Faustin Archange Touadera described the initiative as “an experiment aimed at showing how a meme can unite people, support national development and put the Central African Republic on the world stage.”

The initial announcement was made in English, at midnight (local time), which aroused suspicion. Many believed that the leader’s X page had been hacked. However, Touadera later confirmed the authenticity of the announcement in a video in French.

Capitalization increased spectacularly in the first hours after the launch.

“In 2022, the CAR (ed. – Central African Republic) made history as the second country to recognize bitcoin as a legal means of payment. This decision shows our commitment to innovation. CAR has always believed in the power and importance of the community. Building on this belief, I am proud to announce the launch of the official memcoin,” the president said.

In the first few hours after its launch, the market cap of $CAR skyrocketed by 1,210%. According to Decrypt, the value jumped from $68 million to $897 million, which is almost a third of the country’s $3 trillion GDP.

After the initial surge, the value of $CAR began to decline rapidly. In just 11 hours, the capitalization reached $125 million. Touadera published another video in which he described the launch of memcoin as a “success” and claimed that he would use it to support the country’s residents and repair a school.

This video briefly raised the capitalization of memcoin to almost $400 million, but it soon began to decline again.

Some analysts suggested that $CAR could be a “blatant copy” of the memcoin launched by Donald Trump.