Stablecoin company Kontigo completes full compensation after hacker attack, covering over 1,000 users

On January 6, the stablecoin banking startup Kontigo, focused on the Latin American market, announced that it discovered and quickly patched a security vulnerability over the weekend. The company has fully compensated 1,005 affected users, totaling $340,900 in stablecoins, by January 6. Kontigo disclosed the incident on January 5. Co-founder and CEO Jesus A. Castillo stated that his personal account was also compromised and described it as a direct attack targeting the company’s management and users. Castillo posted on X platform that the company has identified the attacker’s identity and that those involved “will not escape the consequences.” This security incident occurred during Kontigo’s rapid expansion phase. Just a few weeks earlier, on December 22, the company announced the completion of a $20 million seed round led by FoundersX Ventures, with funds to be used for product development and expansion into emerging markets. Founded less than a year ago, Kontigo has received support from Y Combinator. The company reports that in the past 12 months, it achieved an annualized revenue of $30 million, processed over $1 billion in payments, has more than 1 million active users, and a team of only 7 people. However, Kontigo has previously also attracted attention due to “de-banking” issues. Media reports indicated that bank accounts used through intermediaries had been frozen due to compliance risks, but Castillo denied these allegations, stating that the issues stemmed from the intermediary, not the banks themselves.