Venezuela-focused neobank Kontigo pays back users after $340K USDC hack

Kontigo, the self-styled “financial super app” that allows users in Latin America to dodge local inflation by saving and investing in “digital dollars” has been forced to reimburse more than 1,000 of its users after hackers drained more than $340,000 in USDC.

According to Kontigo’s X account on Monday, the company “detected an unauthorized access that affected funds of some users.”

Specifically, the attacker drained a total of 340,905.28 USDC from 1,005 user accounts.

It has since assured users that the refunds for affected accounts have now been processed.

The theft comes less than a month after the startup, which describes itself as a “neobank” saw JP Morgan and payments firm Checkbook cut its access to the US banking system, blaming compliance risks linked to Venezuela.

JP Morgan and Checkbook had provided Kontigo with virtual accounts.

The company’s woes have coincided with the highly controversial military operations by the US in Venezuela that saw the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, snatched from his Caracas residence in a January 3 raid.

One of Kontigo’s main markets may have $60B in BTC

Earlier this month, a Polymarket trader made $437,000 betting on Maduro’s exit just hours before he was captured, prompting fresh insider trading concerns. 

The Polymarket account, which was created in December, bet $32,000 that Maduro would be removed from power by January 31. 

Delta Force seized Maduro from his Caracas safehouse during a large-scale strike on the city. The operation, which reportedly took months of planning, was initially scheduled to take place in December.

Read more: Venezuela had crypto for buying jet fuel, now its president has lost his plane

Many speculate that control over the country’s vast oil reserves could have played a part in the operation, while an investigation by Whale Hunting has revealed that the regime could also be sitting on $60 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC). 

Maduro’s opponent, María Corina Machado, praised BTC in 2024 as a “vital means of resistance” against the country’s dire economic collapse.

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