This week in crypto, Venezuela-focused neobank Kontigo confirmed a $340K USDC breach but pledged to reimburse affected users, while Goldman Sachs upgraded Coinbase after its latest product launches and lowered its rating on eToro. In Uganda, authorities claimed they could block the decentralized messaging app Bitchat, but developers insist the platform cannot be stopped.
Meanwhile, Ethereum raised its blob limit to 21, increasing rollup capacity and preparing the network for broader scalability improvements in 2026.
But First, we see our Best Crypto's for this week.
Top gainers and losers
- JasmyCoin (JASMY) - $0.009261 end price and rose weekly up to 52.49%
- Render (RENDER) - 48.55% growth up to a price of $2.24
- Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) - another significant growth of 43.95% to a price of $1.05
- Midnight (NIGHT) - 20.20% loss down to the price of $0.07003
- Zcash (ZEC) - end week price $434.94 with a week drop of 12.39%
- Canton (CC) - $0.1355 end price with a price loss of 10.76%
Stablecoin neobank Kontigo hit by $340k USDC Breach, pledges full reimbursement
Stablecoin neobank Kontigo says it will fully reimburse users after a security breach led to the unauthorized removal of more than $340,000 in USDC from customer wallets.
In a January 5 statement, the Venezuela-focused fintech confirmed it detected unauthorized access affecting some user funds. The company said affected systems were isolated immediately and security protocols were activated while an internal investigation continues.
A subsequent update placed the total loss at $340,905 in USDC, with 1,005 users impacted. Kontigo has not yet published technical details of the breach but said its security team is working with external cybersecurity specialists to review the incident.
Around the same time, users shared screenshots on social media showing attempted unauthorized account access. Kontigo has not confirmed whether those reports are directly connected to the breach.
“Kontigo will reimburse 100% of the impacted amounts,” the company said, adding that repayments are being handled individually under its security procedures.
The platform is currently operating under reinforced monitoring as systems are gradually restored.
Founded in 2023, Kontigo is a San Francisco-based fintech serving Latin American markets and U.S. Latino communities. The company offers USDC-denominated savings, cross-border payments, cards, and access to tokenized U.S. stocks and Bitcoin.
It is backed by Y Combinator, DST Global, and Coinbase Ventures, and recently raised $20 million at a $100 million valuation.
The incident follows recent security breaches across the crypto sector. Binance-owned Trust Wallet reported losses exceeding $7 million from a Chrome extension exploit last month, while blockchain security firm SlowMist warned on January 5 of an active phishing campaign targeting MetaMask users.
Goldman sachs upgrades Coinbase, downgrades eToro
Goldman Sachs upgraded Coinbase to a “Buy” rating on Monday and lifted its price target to $303, up from $294, after reviewing a wave of new products that broaden the exchange’s business lines. Coinbase shares climbed about 8% following the report.
Analysts led by James Yaro said Coinbase has moved closer to the all-in-one model offered by digital brokers that combine crypto trading with traditional financial services. While the company’s recent entry into prediction markets drew attention, Goldman focused on more conventional additions, including brokerage and banking features already familiar to retail investors.
Goldman expects Coinbase to deliver 12% annual revenue growth through 2027, outpacing peers projected at 8%. The analysts also pointed to the company’s growing exposure to infrastructure-related revenue, which they said could help smooth earnings over market cycles.
Scale remains central to the bullish view. Goldman cited Coinbase’s roughly 9.5 million monthly transacting users and its 5% share of global spot crypto trading volume in 2025. The firm also noted a shift in revenue mix, with about 40% now generated from subscriptions and services such as custody, staking, and stablecoin-related income, reducing reliance on transaction fees.
Coinbase shares rose alongside the broader crypto market as Bitcoin moved above $94,000, marking its highest level in more than a month, according to CoinGecko.
Beyond Coinbase, Goldman said it continues to favor Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, and Figure Technologies among crypto-linked firms. The bank cut its rating on eToro to “Neutral” and lowered its price target to $39, down from $48, citing potential headwinds tied to the company’s renewed push into the U.S. market, where its offerings closely resemble those of established competitors.
Bitchat developer challenges Uganda’s claim It can shut down app
A developer behind the decentralized messaging app Bitchat has pushed back against claims by Ugandan authorities that the service can be disabled ahead of next week’s election.
On Monday, Nyombi Thembo, executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission, said regulators have the technical ability to shut down Bitchat. The statement came as downloads of the app surged following calls from opposition leader Bobi Wine, who urged supporters to install it in case the government cuts internet access during the election period.
Bitchat uses Bluetooth mesh networking to enable encrypted messaging without relying on the internet. The app gained traction last week as concerns grew over a potential repeat of past election-related shutdowns.
“We know how it can be made not to work,” Thembo said, adding that his team includes a large concentration of software developers and engineers.
“Don’t be excited by Bitchat, it’s a small thing.”
One of Bitchat’s developers, Calle, rejected that claim in a post on X, saying the app cannot be stopped. Calle also encouraged Ugandan developers to contribute to open-source projects.
“You can’t stop Bitchat. You can’t stop us,” Calle wrote. “We don't need anyone's permission to write code. Free and open source.”
Data shared by Calle on Monday indicated that more than 400,000 users in Uganda have already downloaded the app.
Uganda has previously restricted internet access during elections. In 2016, President Yoweri Museveni ordered a nationwide internet and social media shutdown, citing security concerns. A similar blackout occurred in 2021, when internet access was cut for four days beginning on election night.
Because Bitchat operates without central servers, user accounts, phone numbers, or email registration, it can function during internet outages.
The app has seen similar spikes elsewhere. In September, nearly 50,000 users in Nepal downloaded Bitchat during a brief social media ban tied to anti-corruption protests. A comparable increase followed in Madagascar several weeks later amid local unrest.
Ethereum raises blob limit to 21
Ethereum developers increased the network’s blob limit to 21 on Wednesday, marking the second Blob Parameter-Only (BPO) hard fork in recent weeks and pushing forward efforts to scale the ecosystem in 2026.
The upgrade took effect at 1:01:11 UTC and raised Ethereum’s data throughput by allowing rollups to batch more transactions per block. Alongside the higher blob ceiling, the update also increased the blob target to 14, a metric developers view as more relevant for network health, since sustained use near the maximum limit could strain node bandwidth and storage.
Each blob holds 128 kilobytes of data, bringing Ethereum’s total blob capacity per block to 2,688 KB.
Blobs were introduced to expand layer-2 throughput while easing congestion on the Ethereum mainnet. Since the first BPO hard fork on Dec. 9, 2025, transaction fees have shown greater stability, according to YCharts data.
Developers are also considering further changes.
During the Dec. 15 Ethereum All Core Developers call, participants discussed raising the network’s gas limit to 80 million, up from 60 million, following the latest BPO upgrade. A higher gas limit would increase the number of transactions and smart contract operations per block.
Later in 2026, Ethereum’s Glamsterdam hard fork is expected to push scalability further by allowing the gas limit to climb as high as 200 million and introducing so-called perfect parallel processing.
That capability would rely on Block Access Lists under EIP-7928, shifting Ethereum away from sequential transaction execution toward parallel processing, with the aim of increasing throughput across the network.
Roman Zaika
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