Written by: Ben Foldy
Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News
Original title: How a Silicon Valley Startup Became Venezuela's Cryptocurrency Lifeline
Fintech startup Kontigo's founders embraced Silicon Valley strategies: moving the company into a San Francisco residence, hosting hackathons tailored for TikTok; pitching buzzword-filled presentations claiming to build a "new Latin American bank"; even boasting about pioneering the Martian economy.
These tactics helped this small, flamboyant crypto startup secure a spot in top accelerator Y Combinator, raising over $20 million in December last year from prominent Silicon Valley investors including Coinbase Ventures.
But recent U.S. military actions in Venezuela have spotlighted the controversial aspect of Kontigo's business: it became a crucial channel for moving funds in and out of Venezuela's heavily sanctioned economy.
Kontigo now faces service disruptions from banks and payment networks including JPMorgan Chase, Stripe and Bridge, while also confronting allegations of undisclosed ties to the ousted Maduro regime, which Kontigo denies.
A Kontigo spokesperson declined to answer questions about business details but stated in a declaration that the company is reviewing its operational model.
"Kontigo is committed to expanding financial access for underserved communities," the spokesperson said. "We are conducting an internal review and will share updates at the appropriate time. We adhere to U.S. laws, including U.S. sanctions regulations, and are evaluating existing sanctions compliance processes and mechanisms, making improvements where necessary."
Kontigo was co-founded in 2023 by Venezuelan Jesus Castillo, who portrayed himself as a "David" about to defeat banking giants. The company claims its 1.2 million users across Latin and South America have moved over $1 billion through its platform. The app allows users to convert hard currency into dollar-pegged stablecoins for payments and access to traditional banking systems.
Outside Venezuela, the company presented itself to investors as a platform helping ordinary Latin Americans facing hyperinflation. But within Venezuela, it became a channel to circumvent U.S. sanctions designed to cut off key sectors of the Maduro regime from the international financial system.
According to a presentation at an invitation-only partner meeting in Caracas last December, an economist invited by Kontigo explained how the company's technology helped the Maduro regime evade U.S. sanctions on oil exports, bringing oil sales revenue back into the domestic economy as cryptocurrency.
As sanctions severed Venezuela's traditional financial channels, the government increasingly relied on stablecoins for oil sales. The economist showed that nearly 80% of oil revenue in the second half of last year came in stablecoin payments. These funds were then converted into bolivars through banks, informal exchange counters, and government-authorized crypto exchanges like Kontigo.
One slide stated: "The crypto market came to the rescue."
For months, Kontigo provided users with transfers between JPMorgan U.S. bank accounts through intermediaries, transactions mostly prohibited by sanctions.
Late last year, JPMorgan abruptly cut off these channels. According to sources, Stripe, which had handled payments and transactions for Kontigo, has also terminated its partnership.
When Kontigo partnered with another U.S. financial institution, executives claimed the company had no physical operations in Venezuela, sources said. The partner recently took steps to end its relationship with Kontigo.
Venezuela turns to stablecoins for oil sales under U.S. sanctions
In the U.S.: A flashy, high-profile startup
Castillo co-founded Kontigo to solve Venezuela's daily financial struggles with blockchain technology, where hyperinflation and lack of credit made it hard for people to save. The platform allows users to convert bolivars into more stable, dollar-pegged stablecoins.
To U.S. investors, Castillo packaged his startup as an immigrant team with big dreams, fighting hard. Early investors said they were drawn to the vision of helping people in real need.
Promotional materials claimed Castillo and colleagues drove Uber night shifts to make ends meet while building the company, aiming to create a financial system for a "multi-planetary abundance era" to avoid "exporting Earth's monetary and economic failures to Mars."
By mid-2025, according to a promotional video on LinkedIn, Kontigo began offering users free "virtual" U.S. bank accounts with JPMorgan. Sources said these accounts were provided through another fintech startup, Checkbook, with no direct banking relationship between JPMorgan and Kontigo. Nonetheless, Kontigo used Chase's brand logo in advertisements.
Last December, just weeks before the U.S. raid toppled the Maduro regime, Kontigo announced a $20 million funding round from investors including Coinbase Ventures, Alumni Ventures and DST Capital. Coinbase, Alumni and DST did not respond to requests for comment.
After the funding, Castillo posted a video on LinkedIn boasting about what he called a "$23 million" Silicon Valley mansion where he and his seven-person team would live, free from distractions, aiming to reach $100 million in annual revenue within 60 days.
"If you're not willing to move the whole team to San Francisco, lock yourselves in a house until you hit the goal, you're not serious enough, you don't want success as badly as we do, you're destined to fail," Castillo said.
According to a promotional video, the funding coincided with a rebranding, with Kontigo claiming to allow any global user to buy and sell dollar-pegged crypto without providing identification.
"Jamie Dimon, we're coming," Castillo posted on LinkedIn, calling out the JPMorgan CEO and again boasting about building the "world's largest bank."
A large screen displaying Kontigo's crypto app interface, showing a $5,000 balance and transaction history
In Venezuela: A different story
In Venezuela, Kontigo operated under a license from the country's crypto regulator Sunacrip, granted by the Venezuelan finance minister to a local company named Oha Technology.
Kontigo later seemed to distance itself from Oha, saying it partners with local institutions in all markets. But until recently, Kontigo's website showed it held a Sunacrip operating license and listed Oha as its Venezuelan subsidiary. Castillo's personal webpage showed he had served as COO of Oha AI. And in private group chats seen by The Wall Street Journal, Castillo celebrated obtaining the Sunacrip license in January 2025, sharing the license document.
At the invitation-only Caracas meeting, company spokespeople emphasized crypto's growing role in Venezuela's economy. Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros told the audience that sanctioned oil sales revenue was received in stablecoins, then flowed into licensed crypto platforms like Kontigo and its competitor Crixto.
Venezuelan Kontigo users could use the app to transfer funds to their Venezuelan bank accounts, even if the bank was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury.
A turn of fate
Just weeks after announcing its funding success, Kontigo's situation began deteriorating rapidly.
In late December, an article in The Information exposed that Kontigo had been cut off by JPMorgan.
Days later, U.S. military action ousted President Maduro. Soon after, influential independent fintech journalist Jason Mikula wrote about the company, alleging secret ties between Kontigo and one of Maduro's sons.
Kontigo fought back immediately.
When Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski shared Mikula's article on X, Kontigo's official account replied that the company "will hold those spreading this false information accountable for the damage to our commercial reputation."
Kontigo then informed users of a platform hack, with 1,005 users losing about $341,000 total. The company said it fully compensated users for their losses.
In a nine-minute video posted on social media on January 12, Castillo said in Spanish that the platform was under attack from both hackers and critics, denying any ties between Kontigo and the Maduro regime.
"The truth is, Kontigo's success is the result of years of effort, resilience and persistence. We are not anyone's son-in-law, nephew or cousin," he said.
Nevertheless, as problems mounted, the company's operations seemed to struggle. Sources said Stripe and Bridge had terminated partnerships with Kontigo, and users reported PayPal no longer processed the app's payments. The Venezuelan crypto license held by Oha Technology expired on January 8.
Kontigo's main public crypto wallet, listed on its website, showed almost no transaction activity in recent days. For months prior, the wallet handled weekly transactions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but since January 19, only a few transactions of about $1 each have occurred.
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