Is crypto legal in Central African Republic? Rules & regulation (2026)
Crypto is unclear in Central African Republic.
The Central African Republic briefly became the second country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in April 2022, but parliament repealed that status in March 2023 under pressure from the BEAC and IMF, leaving crypto legal solely as a voluntary means of private exchange. A parallel May 2022 COBAC decision (D-2022/071) prohibits all CEMAC-regulated banks, microfinance institutions, and payment providers from facilitating any cryptocurrency transaction, effectively severing crypto from the formal financial system. No VASP licensing framework exists in CAR or across the broader CEMAC region, where a supranational regulatory framework remains under development.
Legal framework
COBAC Decision D-2022/071 (CEMAC banking prohibition); CAR Loi No. 22.004 as amended March 2023 (voluntary-use only); BEAC/COBAC supranational oversight
Status by sub-area
Stablecoins
NoneNo stablecoin-specific legislation or authorization regime exists in CAR or at the CEMAC level. BEAC is exploring a digital CFA franc but has not issued a stablecoin framework; private stablecoin issuance is implicitly blocked by the COBAC banking prohibition.
Exchanges / VASP
NoneThere is no VASP or exchange licensing regime in CAR or across the CEMAC region. COBAC Decision D-2022/071 prohibits regulated financial intermediaries from facilitating crypto transactions, and no alternative pathway for non-bank exchanges has been established.
Token Offerings
NoneCAR attempted a state-backed token offering (Sango coin ICO, 2022) with no prospectus or disclosure framework; it failed under IMF scrutiny. The $CAR meme coin (2025) similarly operated with no regulatory framework. No securities-law treatment of token sales exists.
Custody
NoneNo qualified-custodian, segregation, or proof-of-reserves rules exist for crypto in CAR. COBAC D-2022/071 prohibits regulated entities from holding crypto on clients' behalf, leaving custody entirely outside the formal regulatory perimeter.
DeFi
UnclearDeFi is entirely unaddressed in CAR legislation or CEMAC-level regulation. Practical DeFi access is severely limited by internet penetration below 15% and near-absent digital infrastructure. No enforcement posture on DeFi protocols or DAOs has been articulated.
Tax
UnclearNo specific crypto tax legislation exists in CAR. The 2023 amendment to the crypto law explicitly removed the ability to pay taxes in Bitcoin (reversing the 2022 provision). General income or capital-gains treatment of crypto gains under CAR's existing tax code has not been publicly clarified.
Key points: crypto & digital assets in Central African Republic
Bitcoin legal-tender experiment reversed
CAR's Law No. 22.004 of 22 April 2022 made Bitcoin legal tender (the world's second such adoption). Parliament unanimously amended it on 23 March 2023, stripping Bitcoin of legal-tender status and replacing the mandatory-acceptance obligation with voluntary acceptance only.
COBAC D-2022/071 banking prohibition
COBAC Decision D-2022/071 of 6 May 2022 prohibits all regulated entities (banks, microfinance institutions, payment service providers) across the six CEMAC states, including CAR, from acquiring, holding, exchanging, converting, or settling any cryptocurrency transaction on their own or clients' behalf.
Project Sango collapse
The government's 2022 Project Sango, a national crypto token backed by Bitcoin promising e-residency, land tokenization, and a 'Crypto City', attracted IMF criticism for untested design, governance gaps, and failure to meet financial-inclusion goals; it effectively collapsed without achieving its objectives.
No VASP licensing regime
Neither CAR domestically nor the CEMAC supranational architecture has established a licensing or registration regime for virtual-asset service providers. COBAC and BEAC are collaborating with the IMF on a harmonised regional crypto-asset framework, but no such framework is yet in force.
$CAR meme coin (2025)
In early 2025 the government promoted a '$CAR' meme coin on social media; it suffered extreme volatility and raised concerns about market manipulation and opaque governance, highlighting the absence of a consumer-protection or token-offering framework.
IMF pressure and infrastructure gaps
The IMF's 2023 Selected Issues report on CAR identified internet penetration below 15%, limited banking infrastructure, and weak institutional capacity as structural barriers to any functional crypto framework, and called for prerequisite conditions before further digital-asset adoption.
Sources
- centralbanking.com/central-banks/currency/digital-currencies/7956294/car-to-drop-crypto-
- africlaw.com/2023/05/02/constitutional-challenges-to-cryptocurrencies-regulation-i
- africlaw.com/2022/07/21/regulating-cryptocurrencies-in-the-central-african-republi
- 4mlegaltax.com/regulation-of-cryptocurrency-in-the-cemac/
- 4mlegaltax.com/regulating-virtual-asset-services-in-the-cemac-zone/
- elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/002/2023/156/article-A001-en.xml
- imf.org/-/media/files/publications/cr/2023/english/1cafea2023002.pdf
- globalinitiative.net/analysis/behind-the-blockchain-cryptocurrency-and-criminal-capture-in
- freemanlaw.com/cryptocurrency/central-african-states/
- techcabal.com/2022/05/27/the-rise-and-fall-of-hope-for-cryptocurrency-adoption-in-c
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Next topicOrientation, not legal advice: verify against the primary sources linked above. Last verified 24 May 2026. Methodology & how to cite · State of Technology Regulation 2026