The Central African Republic's national meme coin, $CAR, surged on Thursday mere hours before President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced the country would begin tokenizing over 1,700 hectares of land. "Starting June, land concessions will be accessible online using $CAR, directly on Solana," Touadéra said Thursday on X. He also shared a presidential decree authorising the tokenization of the land. "A new era of access and transparency begins." The decree marks the country’s latest effort to integrate crypto with national development. The land, which spans an area equivalent to almost 2,500 football pitches, is situated west of the village of Bossongo, located 45 km west of the capital, Bangui.  The decree also references the country’s mining code and 2023 laws related to tokenizing natural resources, suggesting that the land may be used for mining purposes.  The industry is big business in the country—Russia’s Wagner Group has run several mining projects there during Touadéra's tenure, particularly when it comes to gold and diamonds. However, the price began rising well before the official announcement was made. After hovering around $0.025 on May 26, $CAR experienced notable gains earlier this week. $CAR is up 21% on the day to $0.05. It's up more than 127% over the past week, according to CoinGecko, with a current market cap of $56.63 million and over 18,400 holders.  $CAR was launched in February after President Touadéra posted a flurry of social media messages declaring the coin an experiment in uniting citizens and spotlighting the country on the global stage.  The token briefly hit a peak market cap of $884.31 million a day after launch, before crashing due to unclear utility and waning interest. Despite the current rally, the coin remains down 92.7% from its all-time high of $0.7. Even still, President Touadéra has continued to post about it regularly on X. Reminiscent of Donald Trump's $TRUMP token rollout, Touadéra also offered the top 100 $CAR holders a chance to meet him in Dubai on April 30. The land tokenization push comes amid the winding down of CAR’s earlier crypto venture, Sango Coin. Launched in 2022 as a national digital currency initiative, the project sparked controversy and frustration among investors. On April 29, the Sango team said, “The original Sango project... will not continue in its previous form” but hinted at a reboot. "After careful consideration and strategic planning, we are preparing a new direction that honors the initial ambition, but adapts it to a stronger path forward," it wrote on X at the time. Edited by Sebastian Sinclair