The Central African Republic’s adoption of opaque cryptocurrency schemes risks exposing state assets to capture by foreign criminal networks at a time when the country remains deeply fragile, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The warning comes weeks before the conflict-affected nation heads into a presidential election scheduled for December 28, with President Faustin-Archange Touadéra seeking a third term in office.
The report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) argues that the government’s crypto-backed initiatives are unfolding in a country with weak institutions, limited financial oversight and long-standing exposure to illicit resource flows. GI-TOC is a Switzerland-based research firm comprising a network of 600 experts who track organised crime and illicit financial flows.
Touadéra, first elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020, has positioned himself as a strong advocate of cryptocurrency, arguing that digital assets can help the landlocked country raise funds outside traditional financial systems.
In 2022, the CAR became the first African country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a move the president said would unlock investment, fund infrastructure, and reduce reliance on foreign aid.
But analysts say the strategy has clashed with realities on the ground. The country remains among the poorest on the continent and has faced repeated cycles of coups, rebellions and armed conflict since independence in 1960. Large parts of its territory have historically been outside effective state control, while diamond and gold smuggling have long financed armed groups.
“An impoverished population, …with limited access to electricity, mobile phones and the internet, cannot engage in crypto investments in any meaningful way,” the GI-TOC report said.
Sango project falters
The report focuses on two flagship ventures that it says lack transparency and safeguards against money laundering.
The first, the Sango Coin project launched in 2022, was billed as a tool to transform the capital Bangui into a futuristic hub, offering incentives such as citizenship, e-residency and land to investors.
However, the country’s Constitutional Court outlawed several of the proposed incentives in August 2022. Within a year, the project sold only about 10% of its targeted 210 million tokens, raising less than €2 million ($2.2 million in 2023), according to GI-TOC.
In April, the Sango Project said on X that it would not continue in its current form and that a “new direction” was planned, without providing details. The status of funds already invested remains unclear, the report said.
Meme coin raises further concerns
In February, the government unveiled a second initiative — a meme coin known as $CAR — aimed at driving foreign investment and supporting development.
Meme coins are typically highly volatile and driven by short-term market sentiment. The $CAR launch was marred by technical setbacks, including the suspension of its internet domain within hours, undermining its credibility. Since then, the meme coin has been used to buy tokenised land.
By November 2025, about 122 plots of tokenised land had been sold for roughly $314 per plot, generating just over $38,000 in total, according to the report. There was no evidence that the proceeds had been channelled into the national budget.
GI-TOC warned that plans to extend the scheme to mineral concessions could be particularly dangerous in a country where diamonds, gold and oil have historically been linked to conflict financing.
A senior government official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, dismissed the report as an attempt to discredit the administration, describing the projects as alternatives to what they called the “monopoly of banks”.
But the report highlighted a sharp contrast between ambition and capacity. With just 15.7% of the population connected to electricity, fewer than 40% holding mobile subscriptions, and GDP per capita at $467, most citizens lack the infrastructure to participate in digital finance, GI-TOC noted.
In such a setting, analysts say crypto schemes risk deepening governance and security vulnerabilities rather than delivering the promised economic transformation.
