Kontigo pauses cash withdrawals as unconfirmed circular cites licence

Venezuelan users of Kontigo, an app for holding digital dollars in USDC, say they cannot move their money out to bolivars. CriptoNoticias reported that complaints multiplied on X between 6 and 7 November over the suspension of bolivar operations and limits on moving USDC.Criptonoticias: usuarios de Kontigo denuncian bloqueos (7 Nov 2026). On 12 November, a photo of a document dated 6 November and headed as a circular of Sudeban, Venezuela’s banking regulator, appeared on X.Juan Kassabji (@JuanKassabjiT) on X, photo of a document presented as Sudeban circular SIB-DSB-08954, 12 Nov 2026; @mikangel777 on X, second copy of the same photographed circular, 13 Nov 2026.

The circular tells all banks to suspend any commercial relationship with OHA Technology, C.A., the company that the Wall Street Journal reported in February was granted Kontigo’s licence.Circular SIB-DSB-08954 dated 6 Nov 2026, as photographed on X (our transcription; unconfirmed); Mint: Silicon Valley startup became a crypto lifeline for Venezuela. We could not confirm the circular, and we found no public comment on it from Sudeban, from Sunacrip, the crypto regulator, or from Kontigo.S-Curve check of sudeban.gob.ve for a circular or statement on Kontigo or OHA Technology, 13 Nov 2026.

What users see

@Fintechccs, an account on X that posts bolivar exchange rates every night, posted the text of Kontigo’s in-app notice on 6 November. It reads in part: “Por ahora, los depósitos y retiros en efectivo están en pausa” (for now, cash deposits and withdrawals are paused).@Fintechccs on X, text of Kontigo’s in-app notice, 6 Nov 2026. The notice adds that Kontigo will tell users when the services return, and it does not mention a regulator. CriptoNoticias wrote that the notice does not say when that will be, and that some users say only transfers between accounts on the platform work.

The monitor’s post for 4 November carried no flag on Kontigo.@Fintechccs nightly bolivar rate monitor on X, Kontigo column, Jul to Nov 2026. Its post for 5 November, sent late that evening, read “Kontigo: 1.004,95 (retiros deshabilitados)” (withdrawals disabled). Its 8 November post said deposits and withdrawals were disabled. The circular, and the Sunacrip letter it cites, are both dated 6 November, a day after that first flag.

The circular

The circular cites the Sunacrip letter and says it “instruyó la Suspensión Temporal de la Licencia de Funcionamiento para el Intercambio” (instructed the temporary suspension of the operating licence for exchange). It then calls for “la suspensión de cualquier relación comercial y en general, la realización de operaciones activas, pasivas o conexas” (the suspension of any commercial relationship and, in general, the carrying out of active, passive or related operations). It is addressed to all banking institutions, applies until Sunacrip lifts the suspension, and carries the signature block of Anmy Ivonett Pérez González, Sudeban’s head.

Juan Kassabji, an X user, posted the photo and wrote: “Me llegó de una fuente anónima.” (It reached me from an anonymous source.) Kassabji later wrote that a Sudeban employee had passed it on, and in a reply in the same thread told users they could keep using Crixto, a Kontigo competitor. A second account posted a copy of the same photo with the header and the date, 6 November 2026, visible.

Several details in it match published records, though anyone could copy those. Finanzas Digital reported that Pérez González was appointed head of Sudeban by a decree published in Gaceta Oficial 43.314 of 10 February 2026, as the signature block says.Finanzas Digital: Anmy Perez nueva superintendenta de Sudeban. The 2019 crypto decree the circular cites for Sunacrip’s powers was published in Gaceta Oficial 41.575 of 30 January 2019.Travieso Evans: text of Decreto Constituyente sobre el Sistema Integral de Criptoactivos (Gaceta 41.575, 30 Jan 2019). The licence number it gives, CI-SUNA-2026-002, carries 2026, and Fintech Business Weekly reported that Kontigo’s licence was renewed in February.Fintech Business Weekly, 27 Sep 2026: Kontigo back, licence via Oha Technologies.

We found no official publication of the circular or of the Sunacrip letter, and no second independent photo of it, as of 13 November 2026.

Who OHA is

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Kontigo’s licence “was granted to a Venezuelan company called Oha Technology” and signed by Venezuela’s finance minister. It reported that Kontigo “has since appeared to distance itself from Oha,” saying it works with local actors in all its markets.

Fintech Business Weekly wrote on 27 September that Kontigo “is one of only two firms that officially hold a license to operate in the country” from Sunacrip through “its Oha Technologies C.A. affiliate”. It wrote: “The license was renewed in February and is valid through early 2027.”

Kontigo says its 1.2 million users across Latin America have moved over $1 billion through its platform, and that it raised $20 million from Coinbase and others, the Wall Street Journal reported in February.

Posts on X

By our count of X search results, posts mentioning Kontigo averaged 3.1 a day from 20 October to 4 November.S-Curve count of X posts mentioning Kontigo per day, 20 Oct to 12 Nov 2026. They reached 6 on 5 November, 16 on 6 November, 74 on 7 November and 62 on 8 November, and averaged 43.5 a day from 7 to 12 November. In that later period, 94 of 261 posts mentioned withdrawals, blocked funds or the regulators, against 1 of 49 in the earlier one.

X search misses some posts, and a mention is not always a complaint.

Kontigo’s response and history

Beyond the in-app notice, we found no public statement from Kontigo, and its account on X had posted nothing since 17 October when we checked on 13 November.Kontigo (@kontigo_app) on X, posts checked 13 Nov 2026.

CriptoNoticias wrote that in November 2025 Kontigo temporarily suspended the US accounts of Venezuelan users after its banking provider asked for it. It also wrote that in January 2026 unauthorised access let about 340,905 USDC be taken from more than 1,000 accounts, and that the company said it refunded all the affected funds. Fintech Business Weekly wrote that Kontigo appeared to have been cut off from partners including Bridge, Stripe, PayPal and card issuer Rain after Fintech Business Weekly’s own reporting in January, and that Kontigo was back by September. The rate monitor had flagged Kontigo deposits as disabled before, on 28 July and 26 August.

What we do not know

We do not know whether the circular is genuine. The monitor flagged withdrawals as disabled on the evening of 5 November, and the circular is dated 6 November, so we do not know when withdrawals actually stopped or why. We also do not know whether users can still send USDC to wallets outside the app, or when bolivar withdrawals will return.