President’s Video May Be Deepfake, Say Seferbekov and Ensemble Detectors
On 10 February, the President of the Central African Republic (CAR) announced the release of an official meme coin through his X account.
The announcement claimed the token would boost the country’s global profile and support national development.
However, doubts surrounding the legitimacy of the announcement have emerged, with two deepfake detection tools flagging the video as suspicious.
The Deepware and Seferbekov models showed a high likelihood—82% and 60% respectively—that the video could have been fabricated, raising concerns that the CAR meme coin might be a scam.
In contrast, other detection tools, including Avatarify, found no indication of manipulation.
Amidst these doubts, some have speculated that the president's account may have been compromised.
Additionally, Yokai Ryujin, the founder of unrevealed XYZ, pointed out that the domain for the meme coin was registered just days before the announcement, a detail he found unusual for a national leader.
Despite these concerns, President Touadéra reiterated his long-standing support for cryptocurrency, citing CAR’s recognition of Bitcoin as legal tender as evidence of his commitment.
The official X account for the meme coin has since been suspended, but the president stated he is working with the platform to restore access.
CAR Meme Coin Peaked at $600 Million
The official website of the CAR meme coin outlines its tokenomics, which allocates 25% for creators, 20.7% for the liquidity pool, 10% for charitable causes, and 9.3% for public distribution.
However, blockchain data from Solscan reveals an uneven distribution of tokens: approximately 33% are held in a single wallet, with 25% in another, and 9.81% and 8.39% in two additional wallets.
Notably, the 20.7% designated for liquidity has yet to be transferred into the token’s liquidity pool.
Despite these concerns, the meme coin achieved a peak valuation exceeding $600 million, though it has since fallen to just under $280 million.
Currently, the CAR token is trading at $0.2736.