Central African Republic’s national cryptocurrency plan or Sango Project has suffered a setback after the country’s Constitutional Court judged certain aspects of the project to be unconstitutional.

On 3 July CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra officially launched a national cryptocurrency called Sango Coin, which he touted as the solution to facilitate the tokenisation of the country’s natural resources and attract global investors.

The crypto initiative provides for the acquisition of e-residency in CAR at the cost of US$6,000 - with the equivalent Sango Coins returned to the investor after being held for three years. It also trades CAR citizenship for US$ 60,000 worth of Sango Coin, redeemable after five years. 

In addition, under the plan, a 250m² plot of land can be obtained by locking a fixed collateral of US$10,000 worth of Sango Coins redeemable after a decade.

However, following a case brought before it by a group of civil society organisations known as G-16, the court said the acquisition of CAR citizenship, e-residency and the purchase of certain resources of the country using Sango Coin were in contravention of the constitution.

Citing Article 80 of CAR’s 1996 Constitution, the court noted that the “the sale of Central African nationality is unconstitutional and is cancelled.” The Constitutional Council also outlawed the e-residency programme and land sale using cryptocurrency. The court’s judgement is not subject to appeal.

Monday’s court ruling is a big blow to CAR’s Sango Coin which has witnessed low sales since availability on 25 July.

As of 10 am on 29 August, just 7.5% of the 210 million Sango coins on offer had been sold out, according to the sango.org trading website. The 15,785,050 Sango coins sold since 25 July has generated about US$1.5-million out of a target US$21-million it aims to raise in the genesis cycle

Recently, CAR authorities extended the genesis block of the sale of its cryptocurrency from 25 August to 1 October.