BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic has launched a meme coin in what President Faustin-Archange Touadera said was a bid to raise the profile of one of the world's poorest countries.

Touadera announced the move on X late on Sunday, nearly three years after his government became the first in Africa and the second in the world behind El Salvador to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Meme coins are crypto tokens featuring branding or names referencing memes or internet trends. They are usually highly volatile and have scant practical use.

U.S. President Donald Trump launched a meme coin known as $Trump last month that quickly surged, reaching a peak of over $14.5 billion in overall market value, before slumping.

Despite rich reserves of gold and diamonds, Central African Republic is deeply impoverished and undeveloped and has been gripped by rebel violence for years.

The $CAR meme coin is "an experiment designed to show how something as simple as a meme can unite people, support national development, and put the Central African Republic on the world stage in a unique way," Touadera said on X.

A separate account created for updates and announcements on $CAR was suspended by X as of Monday morning, and Touadera said the government was trying to get it back online as soon as possible.

The $CAR token was trading at $0.22 on Monday morning, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinGecko.

(Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Kate Mayberry)