• Over 5 percent of the token supply has been sold within 24 hours of launch.
• The CAR remains the only other country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.

According to the project’s website details, the Central African Republic’s national digital currency (Sango Coin) is now available for purchase. This sale started on July 25, 2022, with a token supply of 200 million Sango Coins at $0.10 per token. However, the project’s website states that the token’s final listing price would be $0.45.

Any intending buyer must have a minimum of $100 worth of the acceptable digital currency to purchase the Sango Coin. The seven accepted cryptos to purchase Sango Coin are DAI Bitcoin (BTC), Binance USD (BUSD), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), BNB, and USD Coin (USDC).

Potential buyers can transfer any of the accepted tokens on either the Binance Smart Chain or Ethereum-ERC 20 networks. Initially, the authorities pegged the minimum purchase amount to $500 but had to lower it to $100 following complaints from several potential buyers. About 5.3 percent of Sango Coins have been sold within 24 hours of launch.

That means the project generated slightly more than $1 million on its first launch day. The CAR authorities plan to raise over $1 billion from selling the Sango Coins within the next 12 months. It plans to stop this public sale by that time. It is important to note that the Sango Coin has a 1-year lock-up period. Those who buy it during this public sale cannot withdraw or transfer their tokens till the lock-up period expires.

In an announcement earlier this month, CAR president Faustin-Archange Touadera said the Sango Coin would be the nation’s national digital asset. He further said that the authorities plan to use Sango Coin to tokenize its natural resources.

As previously reported in various media, Sango Coin will run on a Bitcoin sidechain. This sidechain has similar characteristics to Blockstream’s liquid network. It has a 2-way peg mechanism while its peg infrastructure consists of BTC and Sango Coin tokens.

CAR’s crypto romance

When it adopted BTC as a legal tender in April 2022, CAR became the second nation in the world to do so after El Salvador. However, it is the first African nation to do so. Many crypto experts were even surprised by the announcement. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also warned CAR that a national digital currency isn’t the solution to the country’s challenges.

Related: President of Central African Republic believes Bitcoin will bring prosperity to citizens and urges all to study blockchain

CAR is launching a national cryptocurrency despite a broader decline in its economic state and is one of the poorest countries worldwide. There are also allegations of a lack of transparency in the launch of its Sango Coin project. Head of Financial Strategy at a crypto investment company, Solrise, Joe Edwards, said it is a poor sign when a crypto project can’t sell out its initial mint.

He added that it is hard to make accurate predictions about the project since there are a lot of unclear details about it. Such unclear details include the exchanges that will list the Sango Coin once the public sale is over.