The Central African Republic on Sunday launched the country's first cryptocurrency, after becoming in April the second nation in the world and first African nation to adopt bitcoin as its official currency, alongside the CFA franc.

"It is a historic moment, a President's dream for the reconstruction of the Central African Republic. Cryptocurrency is revolutionary. It will democratize democracy," the country's President Faustin Archange Touadéra said on the day of the launch in a virtual presentation.

Touadéra wants the new digital currency, dubbed "sango," to value the national natural resources, Efe news agency wrote.

On September 7, 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as its official currency, alongside the US dollar. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the Central American country, led by President, Nayib Bukele, to "eliminate the quality of legal tender" of bitcoin, later expressing concern also about the decision taken by the Central African Republic's executive.

The African country, with an economy heavily dependent on mining, has been the scene of heavy violence since late 2012, when a coalition of Muslim-majority rebel groups - Séléka - seized the capital Bangui and overthrew the President, François Bozizé, after ten years in power (2003-2013), triggering a civil war. As resistance against the Séléka attacks, Christian anti-Balaka militias were formed, which, like the first group, eventually split into several armed factions.

Shortly before the December 27, 2020 presidential election - which the opposition called for to be annulled after more than 40% of polling stations were unavailable due to insecurity - several armed groups banded together to form the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which attempted to take the capital in January 2021.

In October of the same year, Touadéra declared a unilateral ceasefire with the aim of facilitating national dialogue. Despite this progress, two-thirds of the country, rich in diamonds, uranium, and gold, is still controlled by militias and, according to the UN, some 692,000 people are internally displaced.