How a Silicon Valley startup became Venezuela's cryptocurrency lifeline

Kontigo, a cryptocurrency fintech company, recently raised $20 million from institutions such as Coinbase, but has been embroiled in a media storm for helping Venezuelans circumvent sanctions.

Author: Ben Foldy

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

The founder of fintech startup Kontigo readily embraced Silicon Valley's strategy: moving the company into a San Francisco residence, hosting hackathons suitable for TikTok dissemination, using buzzwords in roadshows, claiming to build a "new bank in Latin America," and even making outrageous statements about pioneering the Mars economy.

This move enabled the small, flamboyant crypto startup to successfully join the top incubator Y Combinator and raise over $20 million in funding from prominent Silicon Valley investors such as Coinbase Ventures last December.

But recent U.S. military action in Venezuela has brought a highly controversial aspect of Kontigo's business into the spotlight: it has become a vital conduit for funds to flow into and out of the heavily sanctioned Venezuelan economy.

Kontigo is now facing service disruptions from banks and payment networks, including JPMorgan Chase, Stripe, and Bridge, as well as allegations of undisclosed ties to the ousted Maduro regime, which Kontigo denies.

A Kontigo spokesperson declined to answer questions about business details, but said in a statement that the company is reviewing its operating model.

"Kontigo is committed to expanding financial access to underserved populations," a spokesperson said. "We are conducting an internal review and will release updates as appropriate. We adhere to U.S. laws, including U.S. sanctions regulations, and are evaluating and improving existing sanctions compliance processes and mechanisms as necessary."

Founded in 2023 by Venezuelan Jesus Castillo, Kontigo positions himself as a "David" poised to defeat mainstream banking giants. The company claims its 1.2 million users in Latin and South America have facilitated over $1 billion in transactions through its platform. The app allows users to exchange hard currency for a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, enabling payments and access to traditional banking systems.

Outside of Venezuela, the company portrays itself to investors as a platform helping ordinary Latin Americans facing hyperinflation. But within Venezuela, it becomes a conduit to circumvent US sanctions aimed at severing key sectors of the Maduro regime from the international financial system.

According to a presentation at an invite-only partner pitch in Caracas last December, Kontigo invited an economist to explain how the company’s technology could help the Maduro regime circumvent U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil exports and channel oil sales revenue back into the domestic economy in the form of cryptocurrency.

With sanctions cutting off Venezuela's traditional financial channels, the government is increasingly relying on stablecoins for oil sales. The economist presented at the conference that in the second half of last year, nearly 80% of the country's oil revenue was received in stablecoin payments. These funds were then converted into bolivars through banks, informal trading desks, and government-authorized crypto exchage such as Kontigo.

One of the slides read: "The crypto market comes to the rescue."

For months, Kontigo has been providing users with the ability to transfer funds between JPMorgan Chase U.S. bank accounts through intermediaries, most of which are prohibited by sanctions.

Late last year, JPMorgan Chase abruptly cut off related channels. According to sources, Stripe, which had processed payments and transactions for Kontigo, has also terminated its partnership with the company.

According to sources, when Kontigo reached a cooperation agreement with another US financial institution, company executives told the other party that it had no actual operations in Venezuela. That partner has recently taken steps to terminate its relationship with Kontigo.

The United States: A high-profile and flamboyant startup

Castillo co-founded Kontigo with the aim of using blockchain technology to solve Venezuela's daily financial difficulties, including hyperinflation and credit shortages that make it difficult for citizens to retain their savings. The platform allows users to exchange bolivars for stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, which are more stable in value.

For U.S. investors, Castillo packaged his startup as a team of ambitious and hardworking immigrants, and early investors said they were drawn to the vision of helping those who were truly in need.

In its promotional materials, the company claims that Castillo and his colleagues took turns driving Uber night shifts to make ends meet while building the company, dedicated to creating a financial system adapted to the "multi-planetary abundance era" and avoiding "exporting Earth's currency and economic failures to Mars".

In mid-2025, according to a promotional video released by LinkedIn, Kontigo began offering users free "virtual" JPMorgan Chase US bank accounts. Sources familiar with the matter said these accounts were offered through another fintech startup, Checkbook, and that JPMorgan Chase had no direct banking relationship with Kontigo. Nevertheless, Kontigo continued to use the JPMorgan Chase branding in its advertising.

Last December, just weeks before the U.S. raid that ousted Maduro's government, Kontigo announced the completion of a $20 million funding round, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and DST Capital. Coinbase, Alumni, and DST did not respond to requests for comment.

After securing funding, Castillo posted a video on LinkedIn, boasting about his Silicon Valley mansion, which he described as worth $23 million. He and his seven-person team would live there undisturbed, with the goal of increasing annual revenue to $100 million within 60 days.

"If you're not willing to move your whole team to San Francisco and lock yourself in a house until you achieve your goal, then you're not serious enough, you're not as eager to succeed as we are, and you're destined to fail," Castillo said.

According to a promotional video, this funding round coincides with a rebranding of the company's services. Kontigo claims that it allows any user worldwide to buy and sell US dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies without providing identity documents.

"Jamie Dimon, here we come," Castillo posted on LinkedIn, addressing the CEO of JPMorgan Chase and once again boasting about building the "world's largest bank."

In Venezuela: Another version of events

In Venezuela, Kontigo operates under a license issued by the country's cryptocurrency regulator, Sunacrip, granting it government permission to conduct cryptocurrency business. The license was granted to a Venezuelan company called Oha Technology and signed by the Venezuelan Minister of Finance.

Kontigo subsequently appeared to attempt to distance itself from Oha, claiming it partnered with local entities in all markets. However, until recently, Kontigo's website still showed it held an operating license issued by Sunacrip and listed Oha as a Venezuelan subsidiary. Castillo's personal webpage indicated he previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Oha AI. Furthermore, in private group chat messages seen by the Wall Street Journal, Castillo celebrated obtaining the Sunacrip license in January 2025 and shared the license documents.

At an invite-only presentation in Caracas, a company spokesperson emphasized the growing importance of cryptocurrency in the Venezuelan economy. Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros told the audience that revenue from sanctioned oil sales was received in stablecoins and subsequently flowed into licensed crypto platforms such as Kontigo and its competitor Crixto.

Venezuelan Kontigo users can use the app to transfer money to their Venezuelan bank accounts, even though the bank is subject to sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Turning point of fate

Just weeks after announcing its successful funding round, Kontigo's situation began to deteriorate rapidly.

In late December of last year, an article in The Information revealed that Kontigo had been cut off from services by JPMorgan Chase.

Days later, a U.S. military operation ousted President Maduro. Shortly afterward, influential independent fintech journalist Jason Mikula published an article about the company, accusing Kontigo of having secret ties to one of Maduro's sons.

Kontigo then launched a counterattack.

After Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski shared Mikula's article on the X platform, Kontigo's official account responded that the company "will hold those who spread this misinformation accountable for the damage it has caused to the company's business reputation."

Kontigo subsequently informed users that the platform had been hacked, resulting in a total loss of approximately $341,000 for 1,005 users. The company stated that it has fully compensated users for their losses.

In a 9-minute video posted on social media on January 12, Castillo stated in Spanish that the platform was being attacked by both hackers and critics, and denied any connection between Kontigo and the Maduro regime.

"The truth is, Kontigo's success is the result of years of hard work, perseverance, and persistence. We are not anyone's son-in-law, nephew, or cousin," he said.

Despite this, the company's operations appear to be struggling as the problems continue to escalate. According to sources, Stripe and Bridge have terminated their partnership with Kontigo, and users have reported that PayPal is no longer processing payments through the app. Oha Technology's Venezuelan cryptocurrency regulatory license expired on January 8th.

The main public crypto wallet listed on Kontigo's official website has seen almost no trading activity in the past few days. In previous months, the wallet had an average weekly transaction volume of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but since January 19, there have been only a few transactions of about $1 each.

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