Court Stymies African Bitcoin Adopter’s Gold-for-Crypto Offer

Baudelaire Mieu and Katarina Hoije, Bloomberg News

Gold bullion bars sit following casting at the Rand Refinery Ltd. plant in Germiston, South Africa, on Wednesday, Aug. 16. 2017. Established by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa in 1920, Rand Refinery is the largest integrated single-site precious metals refining and smelting complex in the world, according to their website. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The Central African Republic’s hopes of becoming Africa’s top cryptocurrency destination were dealt a blow on Monday, when the country’s highest court deemed its plan to offer land and mineral resources to investors unconstitutional.

The government must cease offering land and citizenship in exchange for investments in the CAR’s cryptocurrency, known as Sango Coin, according to the decision by the Constitutional Court in the capital, Bangui. Offering citizenship is unconstitutional “considering that nationality has no market value,” the court said.

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The CAR became the first country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in April.

Sales of Sango Coin continued on Monday, presidency spokesman Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said by phone. “We respect the court’s decision and we’re now looking at another way to offer land and citizenship to investors,” Mokpeme said.

The mineral-rich but impoverished country last month said that investors would be able to acquire citizenship, land and access to its minerals for $60,000 worth of Sango Coin. CAR’s large reserves of mainly gold and diamonds remain largely unexploited due to decades of conflict.

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A 250 square-meter (2,691 square-foot) plot of land is listed as $10,000. Sango Coin sales have so far been slow.