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The Central African Republic’s cryptocurrency initiatives risk delivering state assets—including diamond, gold, and oil concessions—into the hands of transnational criminal networks, according to a report released Wednesday by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, days before President Faustin-Archange Touadéra seeks a third term in office.
The Switzerland-based watchdog warned that the government’s flagship crypto projects, including the failed Sango Coin and the volatile $CAR meme token, lack transparency and anti-money laundering safeguards, creating pathways for illicit actors to exploit one of the world’s poorest and most conflict-affected nations.
The timing of the report is significant. Touadéra, in power since 2016, is widely expected by analysts to win re-election in a country that has experienced decades of coups, rebellions and political instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.
His administration has championed digital currencies as a path to economic revival, framing them as tools to bypass traditional financial systems.
In 2022, CAR became the first African country and the second globally to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a move hailed by supporters as bold and innovative. However, GI-TOC warns that the reality of these opaque crypto schemes is far less transformative and far more risky.
“The CAR regime is effectively trading away the country’s sovereignty at the expense of the wider population,” the Switzerland-based network of roughly 600 experts said in its report, which tracks international organised crime and illicit financial flows.
The Bangui government declined to comment officially on the findings. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, dismissed the report as an attempt to undermine the administration ahead of the vote.
Defending the initiatives, the same senior official said the projects should be understood within a broader critique of traditional finance.
“These types of projects are now presented as alternatives to the monopoly of banks and the tightening of measures by financial institutions,” the official said.
Touadéra himself has consistently argued that crypto adoption would unlock non-traditional funding sources to finance infrastructure and development, promising prosperity to CAR’s estimated 5.5 million citizens.
Yet critics say that without transparency, regulation and safeguards, opaque crypto schemes risk enriching a narrow circle of insiders while exposing the state to abuse by transnational criminal organizations.
According to GI-TOC, the lack of clear governance structures and anti–money laundering controls creates fertile ground for illicit actors seeking to launder funds or gain access to strategic national resources. For policymakers watching from outside the region, the report offers a cautionary tale of how crypto enthusiasm can collide with weak institutions.
The GI-TOC report focuses heavily on two flagship initiatives. The first is the Sango Coin project, unveiled by Touadéra as a visionary plan to turn Bangui into a futuristic hub and overhaul national infrastructure. The scheme promised extraordinary incentives, including citizenship, e-residency and land, to foreign investors willing to buy into the project.
Those incentives, however, were struck down by the Constitutional Court in August 2022, shortly after the launch. The project struggled to gain traction, ultimately selling only about 10% of its target 210 million tokens within a year, with proceeds valued at less than 2 million euros, the report said.
For GI-TOC, the Sango experience illustrates how opaque crypto schemes can collapse under legal and institutional scrutiny, leaving investors and citizens in the dark.
In April, the Sango Project acknowledged its difficulties in a post on X, saying it would not continue “in its current form” and that “a new direction” was planned, without offering details. The fate of funds already invested remains unclear, according to the report, adding to concerns about accountability.
The second initiative highlighted by GI-TOC is $CAR, a meme coin launched in February with the stated aim of boosting the country’s global profile and supporting development. Meme coins, often driven by internet trends rather than fundamentals, are known for extreme volatility. The $CAR rollout was rocky from the start, including the suspension of its internet domain within hours of launch.
Since then, the token has reportedly been used to purchase tokenized land. However, GI-TOC said there is no clear evidence showing how those transactions have benefited the national budget, reinforcing concerns that opaque crypto schemes lack meaningful public oversight.
Most troubling for the watchdog is the government’s apparent plan to extend these mechanisms to mineral concessions.
With minimal identity verification or anti–money laundering safeguards, the report warns that diamonds, gold and oil reserves could effectively be auctioned to transnational criminals through opaque crypto schemes, undermining state control over strategic assets.
