A report from the GI-TOC organization alleges that the Central African Republic's cryptocurrency initiatives do not benefit the people but instead facilitate control of the country by elites and transnational criminal networks.
According to a newly released report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), the Central African Republic 's strategy of promoting cryptocurrency assets has increased elite control and left the country vulnerable to international criminal organizations, rather than achieving its initially stated goal of financial inclusion.
In a report titled “Behind the blockchain: Cryptocurrency and criminal capture in the Central African Republic,” researchers point out that the country’s cryptocurrency initiatives, from recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender to issuing Sango Coin and the CAR memecoin, are all being implemented within the context of a fragile nation with extremely limited electricity infrastructure, internet access, and oversight mechanisms.
The reality of poverty and lack of infrastructure.
The report emphasizes that the vast majority of the population, impoverished and facing mass executions, torture, and organized sexual violence, while lacking access to electricity, mobile phones, and the internet, are unable to participate in cryptocurrency investment activities in any meaningful way. These programs are deemed to serve the interests of foreign investors more than the needs of the domestic population.
GI-TOC has been particularly critical of the July 2023 law allowing the Tokenize of national resources such as oil, gold, timber, and land, arguing that this regulation poses a serious risk of undermining national sovereignty and creating opportunities for foreign powers to control natural resources.
In April 2022, the Central African Republic recognized Bitcoin as legal tender, becoming the second country in the world to do so after El Salvador. However, less than a year later, in March 2023, the country was forced to repeal the law under strong pressure from the Central African Economic and Monetary Community and the International Monetary Fund.
GI-TOC argues that this initiative is fundamentally impractical, given that only 15.7% of the population has access to electricity, less than 40% own mobile phone subscriptions, and the GDP per capita is only $467. The majority of the population lacks the necessary infrastructure and resources to participate in cryptocurrency transactions.
The report also alleges that President Faustin-Archange Touadéra is surrounded by cryptocurrency advocates, pro-Russian businessmen, and controversial oligarchs, some of whom have been linked to allegations of illegal timber trafficking, fraud, and previous criminal convictions.
Regarding implementation effectiveness, the Sango project, launched in 2022 with the goal of Tokenize natural resources, has only sold less than 10% of its target supply. Memecoin CAR is currently trading around $0.004105, down more than 93% in the past year according to data from CoinGecko. The report concludes that these initiatives are designed to enrich a small group of insiders, opening channels for foreign influence and transnational organized crime.
