Hold your crypto. Spend it the second you tap.
Nova converts only what a purchase costs, at that moment's price, and pays the merchant in dollars. The rest of your crypto never leaves the market.
No spam, no selling your data Watch a payment
Questions before you join? Write to hello@novacard.us.
One Balance · Illustrative
$18,426.72
$4,120.55 available to spend · rest held in crypto
One tap. Three things happen.
Pick one. Only that amount converts, and the rest of your Bitcoin stays exactly where it is.
- Keep what you hold
- Your BTC, ETH and stablecoins stay in the asset you chose. Nothing is pre-sold and nothing sits in dollars waiting to be spent.
- Pay like a normal card
- Tap, dip, or pay online through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The terminal runs an ordinary card payment. There is nothing for the cashier to learn.
- Only that purchase converts
- At the moment you tap, Nova converts the exact amount of that transaction at that moment's price. Not your whole balance. Just the coffee.
You already own the money. You just can't spend it.
Between a wallet and a sandwich there is an exchange, a sale, a transfer, a settlement window, and a completely different card. Each step costs something.
| Spending crypto today | What it costs you | Relative weight |
|---|---|---|
| Open an exchange account | Identity checks, days | |
| Sell more than you needed | Exchange fee & spread | |
| Withdraw the dollars | Flat withdrawal fee | |
| Wait for settlement | Days of price exposure | |
| Pay with a different card | A second account to run | |
| Nova: tap the card | One conversion fee |
Limitless.
Not a crypto card that only works in crypto places. An ordinary card, accepted wherever cards already are: at the register, online and abroad. It draws on whichever asset you chose to hold.
You still set your own spending limits, and plan allowances apply. Every one is on the fee schedule.
Your balance is still crypto.
Nothing has been sold. Nothing is sitting in dollars waiting. The card is in your wallet and your holdings are untouched.
Open the wallet on your phone.
Nova works with Apple Pay and Google Pay, so paying starts the same way it already does on your phone.
Confirm with your face.
The payment can't go through without you. It's the same check that unlocks the app.
Hold it near the reader.
The terminal runs an ordinary card payment and is paid in dollars. At that instant Nova converts the amount of this purchase, and only this purchase.
The whole conversion, written down.
What was converted, the rate at the moment you tapped, and the fee. No spread hidden in the exchange rate.
The app is real. The money isn't, yet.
These are screens from the working iOS prototype, on a demo balance. Every figure is simulated, and nothing in it moves real money.
The account
Every tap is a taxable event. Nova keeps the receipts.
In the United States, spending crypto is a disposal of a capital asset. Buy coffee four hundred times a year and you have four hundred disposals, each needing a cost basis, a holding period and a gain or loss.
Nova records all of it as it happens, because Nova is the one doing the conversion. At the end of the year you export a summary your filing software or your accountant can use.
Nova gives you the records and the arithmetic. It is not a tax adviser, it does not file for you, and the rules differ by state and by person.
Included on every plan, including Free.
One number, then the truth behind it.
Crypto and cash, shown as one figure you can actually read. Underneath it: exactly how much you can spend today, and what is still held in the asset you chose.
Smart Spend decides what converts first. Set it once (stablecoins before long-term holdings, say) and stop thinking about it.
Join the waitlistThe first asset with enough balance pays. Put long-term holdings last, and they are only touched when nothing above them can cover a purchase. Hold mode stops every card payment, so nothing converts at all.
Easy for you to reach. Hard for anyone else.
You should be able to explain your own security in one breath. In the prototype today: your face opens the app, your limits are yours to set, and the card freezes in one tap. Everything else is below, with what is built kept apart from what is planned.
- Face ID to open the appAnd it locks again the moment you leave, before the app switcher can take a picture of your balance.
- A six-digit passcode of its ownNot your phone's. Ten wrong tries lock it for an hour, and every lockout after that lasts ten hours.
- Two-factor sign-inWith any authenticator app, offered when you set up the account.
- Freeze the card in one tapSet your own spending limits too. Raising a limit or unfreezing asks for your face first.
- Card details behind Face IDThey hide again after 45 seconds. A copied number clears after a minute and never reaches your other devices.
- Turn the phone over, the balance blursShow someone a screen without showing them what you hold.
- Records locked to the deviceYour history and tax exports are stored with iOS's strongest file protection, unreadable while the phone is locked.
- PasskeysSign in with your face instead of a password that can be phished.
- A check on every new deviceA new phone has to prove it is you before it sees anything.
- Raised limits that waitLowering a limit is instant. Raising one takes effect later, so nobody can force it through on the spot.
- An email for every new sign-inWith where and when, so a sign-in you didn't make is one you hear about.
- Fraud monitoring on every paymentWhen something trips it, you are told what and why, rather than silently declined at the counter.
Nova holds no customer assets today. No custody arrangement is signed, and how your crypto will be held at launch is still an open decision. You will see exactly how it works before anyone is asked to put money in.
Three plans. No surprises.
Planned pricing for the US launch, published now so nothing surprises you later.
Free
$0/ month
$0/ month
Free, and it stays free.
Free, and it stays free.
Everything you need to spend crypto, at no cost.
No subscription to earn back. Cheapest below about $2,000 a month of BTC or ETH spending.
- Virtual card issued instantly
- One Balance dashboard
- Apple Pay & Google Pay
- Tax records and export
Premium
Most complete$12/ month
$12$11.40/ month
$144 over a year. Paying yearly brings that to $136.80.
$136.80 billed yearly, instead of $144.
A real card, better rates, and rules that spend for you.
Pays for itself at about $2,000 a month of BTC or ETH spending, or $1,900 if you pay yearly.
- Physical card
- Priority conversion rate
- Smart Spend rules
- Travel mode included
Metal
$28/ month
$28$26.60/ month
$336 over a year. Paying yearly brings that to $319.20.
$319.20 billed yearly, instead of $336.
For households, frequent travelers and the first people through the door.
Cheapest overall once you spend about $4,000 a month in BTC or ETH.
- Weighted metal card
- Family accounts included Planned
- Dedicated support line Planned
- Founding-member perks at launch
Planned pricing, United States, subject to change before launch. Nothing is charged today.
Work out what you'd pay.
Move the sliders to see what each plan would cost you in a month. If the answer is Free, the calculator says Free. Nothing here is trying to upsell you.
Every planned fee, in one table.
If it isn't on this table, Nova doesn't plan to charge for it. That includes closing your account, disputing a payment, freezing your card and talking to a person.
| What | Free | Premium | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stablecoin conversionUSDC and similar, converted at the till | Free | Free | Free |
| Crypto conversionBTC, ETH and other volatile assets | 1.25% | 0.65% | 0.25% |
| Monthly subscription | $0 | $12 | $28 |
| Yearly subscriptionFive percent less than twelve monthly payments | $0 | $136.80 | $319.20 |
| Spending abroadOn top of the exchange rate Nova is quoted, any day of the week | 1.0% | Free | Free |
| ATM withdrawalsThen a percentage above the monthly allowance | $2.50 + 2% over $200 | $400 free, then 2% | $1,000 free, then 1.5% |
| Virtual card | Free | Free | Free |
| Physical card | $9 once | Included | Metal, included |
| Replacement card | $9 | One a year free | Free |
| Tax records and export | Free | Free | Free |
Planned fees, United States, subject to change before launch.
Fair questions.
Straight answers, including the ones where the answer is "not yet".
Something missing? Write to hello@novacard.us.
Is Nova a bank?
No, and it doesn't call itself one. Nova holds no banking charter and no money-transmission license, and nothing on this site moves real money. The app is a working prototype: every financial part is built behind a real interface with a simulated engine underneath, so a licensed card issuer and identity checks can be connected without rebuilding the product.
Who would hold my crypto?
Today, nobody: Nova holds no customer assets. The direction is that Nova only ever touches the amount of each purchase, at the moment you make it. How custody works at launch is still an open decision. You will see exactly who holds what, and when, before anyone is asked to put money in.
How is this different from the crypto card I already have?
Most crypto cards pre-fund a dollar balance. You decide in advance how much to sell and guess next month's spending. Nova converts per purchase instead, so you never decide in advance, and whatever you don't spend never left the market. Every tap comes with a receipt showing what converted, at what rate, for what fee.
What if the price moves between my tap and the payment settling?
A rate guard absorbs the movement between the tap and settlement, so the rate on your receipt is the rate at your tap. Its cost has been measured over 10,000 simulated settlements, and the number is in the prototype rather than in a slide.
Doesn't spending crypto make a mess of my taxes?
In the US every purchase is a disposal, so you are creating those records already. Usually they come in big, badly timed lumps that you rebuild by hand in April. Nova records each disposal with its cost basis and holding period as it happens, and exports a year statement, a Form 8949 worksheet and CSV. Free on every plan. It is a record, not tax advice, and Nova doesn't file for you.
Which coins can I spend?
The prototype holds BTC, ETH and USDC. Whether SOL is included at launch hasn't been decided.
When can I use it, and where?
The United States first. There is no launch date yet, because a card needs a signed card issuer and a registered company behind it, and neither is in place. The waitlist hears first, when there is something real to try, and not before.
What does it cost?
Free, Premium at $12 a month, or Metal at $28. The full planned fee table is in Every fee, and the calculator under What you'd pay tells you which plan is cheapest for your own spending. Nothing is charged today, and the pricing may change before launch.
What happens to my email if I join?
It goes on the waitlist with the plan you picked and how you found us, and it is never sold. Ask at hello@novacard.us and it is deleted. What Nova is today lists every field that is sent.
Built, next, and later.
The card is the point. These are the things around it, sorted by how real they are today.
Working today, on a demo balance
- Ask Nova Questions about your own spending, fees and taxes, answered from your ledger.
- Tax records A year statement, a Form 8949 worksheet and CSV export.
- Send by username Pick a handle, an asset and an amount. Simulated.
- Smart Spend Choose which asset pays first, or switch on Hold mode to stop every payment.
- Card controls Freeze, limits, and details behind Face ID.
Being designed now
- Apple Pay and Google Pay Pay the way your phone already does.
- Physical and metal cards On Premium and Metal.
- Travel mode The local currency and the rate, shown before you pay.
- Multi-currency balances Hold and spend euros, pounds, francs and more.
- A card per merchant Shut one subscription's card without touching the rest.
- Scheduled conversions Convert on a cadence instead of at the till.
Where Nova goes next
- Get paid in Salary and transfers land in the account. Keep them as cash or convert them on your terms.
- Family accounts A card each, one balance behind them. Metal.
- International transfers Send across borders at the rate you can see.
Nothing in the second and third columns exists yet. They are listed so you can judge where Nova is going, not as features you can use.
Get the card before it's public.
Early access opens in the United States first. Join the list and Nova will write when there is something real to try. Not before.
Sending your sign-up…
- NowYou're on the list. There is nothing else to do.
- Before launchNova writes when there is something real to try, and not before.
- At launchThe list hears first, starting in the United States.
Know someone who holds crypto and hates selling it? Your link tells us they came from you.
Questions or concerns? Write to hello@novacard.us.
Prototype. Nova is pre-launch. Joining sends Nova your email address, the plan you picked, the referral and campaign details in the link you followed, your device class and browser timezone and, if you used the calculator, the three figures you set, so Nova can write to you when there is something to try. Every field is listed here. No account is created and nothing is charged. Nova does not sell your data, and you can ask for your details to be deleted at any time.