Holders won't sell. Nova lets them spend.
Nova is a card for people who hold crypto. Each purchase converts only what it costs, at that moment's price, and the merchant is paid in dollars. The rest of the position never leaves the market.
The product is built. The company is forming. This page is the case for both.
Nothing on this page is an offer of securities or an invitation to invest. Nova is not a bank, and no real money moves in the product today.
One holder's Bitcoin · Illustrative
0.10780879BTC
- Blue Bottle Coffee$6.400.00006100 BTC converted at $104,918.00
- Groceries$126.300.00120380 BTC converted at $104,918.00
- Headphones$349.000.00332641 BTC converted at $104,918.00
Sell last.
Every crypto card on the market sells first: cash out, pre-fund a dollar balance, then spend it. Nova inverts the order. Nothing converts until the moment of purchase, and then only the purchase converts.
The money is there. Spending it is broken.
A holder who wants to buy something today opens an exchange, sells more than they need, waits for the transfer, then pays with a different card. Each step costs money, time or position.
Illustrative: a $20,000 position and 22 purchases. Prices are held flat so only timing differs. This shows when crypto is sold, not a return.
The tourists left. The holders stayed.
Crypto ownership fell this year. The people still holding through a drawdown are exactly who Nova is built for: conviction, a long horizon, and no wish to sell.
- 9%
of US adults own crypto, down from 14% a year earlier, after a steep fall in prices. The market Nova enters is the one that stayed.
Gallup, published 21 September 2026. Source - 24%
of US men aged 18 to 49 own crypto, more than double any other age and gender group. A clear, reachable first audience.
Gallup, survey of 1 to 15 June 2026. Source - 1099-DA
Brokers now report crypto sales to the IRS, with cost basis from 2026. Spending crypto is a disposal, and every one needs a record. Nova writes it at the tap.
IRS, Instructions for Form 1099-DA. Source - 2025
The GENIUS Act became law on 18 July 2025, the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. Nova converts stablecoins free on every plan.
GENIUS Act, signed 18 July 2025. Source
Built, not pitched.
At this stage most companies show a deck. Nova shows a working iOS app: the full loop from tap to receipt, on a simulated financial stack that real providers plug into.
| Piece | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| iOS app | Swift and SwiftUI. Home, card, receipts, markets, Ask Nova and security, on a demo balance. | Working |
| Automated tests | 236 tests across five packages, all passing. | Real |
| Codebase | About 30,700 lines of Swift in six packages, built to be handed to the next engineer. | Real |
| Money math | Integer cents and satoshis. Not one floating-point number touches money. | Real |
| Ledger | Event-sourced and append-only. Every balance is a replay of signed events, so every figure traces to its cause. | Real |
| Cost-basis engine | FIFO, HIFO and specific lot, per disposal, with holding period. Exports a year statement, a Form 8949 worksheet and CSV. | Real |
| Ask Nova | A deterministic assistant. It answers from the ledger and refuses the rest, so it cannot invent a figure. | Real |
| Accounts | Sign-in by email and six-digit code, two-factor, Face ID lock, account deletion. | Real |
| Site and waitlist | Live at novacard.us, with a spend calculator that qualifies each sign-up. | Live |
| Card, custody, conversion, identity | Each behind a protocol interface with a simulated implementation. No real money moves. | Simulated |
Want to see it? Screens from the app are on the main site, and the full app runs on a phone in any conversation.
The hard part, modelled in code.
Between the tap and settlement, the price moves. Nova holds a small guard on top of each purchase. If the price falls, the guard covers it. Whatever the guard doesn't use goes back to the customer.
Asset paying for a $47.50 purchase
The guard covers the fall. The merchant is paid in full, and the unused guard goes back to the customer.
Measured, not assumed. RateGuardSizingTests runs 20,000 simulated settlements per asset on a $47.50 purchase, at assumed annual volatility of 2% (USDC), 50% (BTC) and 65% (ETH), and fails if a change pushes expected cost past these ceilings. The residual is real: a separate test fails if anyone claims the guard makes Nova whole. It is a treasury line to hedge, not a problem declared solved. Before launch the assumed volatility is replaced with realised figures from the provider's own fills.
Simulated today. Swappable tomorrow.
Every financial capability sits behind a protocol interface. Today each one runs on a simulation. At launch a real provider takes its place, and the product above it doesn't change.
CardServiceQuoteServiceIdentityServiceAuthServicePriceFeedLedgerStoreTwo revenue lines. Both on the receipt.
Nova earns a conversion fee on each purchase paid from volatile crypto, and a subscription on Premium and Metal. Stablecoin conversion is free. Interchange is modelled at zero until an issuer contract sets it.
$241,800
$20,150 a month · $20.15 per member a month
| At 1,000 members | Spend a month | Annual revenue |
|---|---|---|
| $750 | $109,500 | |
| $2,500 | $241,800 | |
| $6,000 | $506,400 |
A provisional model, not a forecast. It uses the planned rates published on novacard.us, and Nova's pricing is still open and will change before launch. Scenarios assume 70% Free, 25% Premium and 5% Metal, with 40% of spending from stablecoins. Figures are revenue before vendor costs: issuer, custody, identity checks, card manufacturing and support are not deducted. Left out, all of which would add revenue: interchange, and the planned fees for spending abroad, ATM withdrawals and physical cards. Revenue today is $0.
Hard to copy truthfully.
The receipt is the product
A pre-funded card sold a lump weeks ago, so it can't show which coins paid for today's coffee, at what rate. Nova converts at the tap, so every receipt carries the asset, the rate and the fee. No spread hides in the rate.
A tax engine as the hook
Cost basis and holding period recorded per disposal, exported as a Form 8949 worksheet. Free on every plan, because it is the strongest reason a US holder switches.
Money that adds up, always
Integer money and an event-sourced ledger. Every figure in the app is a replay of signed events: the foundation an auditor, a regulator and a provider all want to see.
Accuracy as positioning
Every simulated figure is labelled, on the site and in the app. In a category known for overclaiming, being exactly right is a habit competitors can't add later.
One customer first: the long-term holder.
Holds BTC or ETH for years, has conviction, and treats selling as losing. The homepage speaks to this person, and the next segments follow: the crypto-native daily spender, the stablecoin earner, the holder who travels.
Short video on TikTok, Instagram and X shows the mechanic in seconds. The waitlist measures what matters: a qualified sign-up is someone who ran the spend calculator and landed on a paid plan.
Discipline about who Nova is for keeps acquisition focused, support predictable and the brand credible with the people it wants.
Where Nova goes.
Three gates turn the prototype into a company. Funding is not one of them: Nova was built without outside money, and capital decides the speed, not whether it happens.
- Done
A working product and a live front door
The iOS prototype with the full core loop, real accounts and sign-in, and novacard.us with a working waitlist.
- Gate one
The vendor stack, signed
Rain for card issuing and Zero Hash for custody, conversion and fiat rails are selected. Contracts come next, and the custody model is decided before they are signed.
- Gate two
The company and its license path
Nova Finance LLC (in formation), New Jersey. The intended route is a platform model running on the provider's licenses, to be confirmed by a 50-state legal opinion.
- Gate three
The first real members
The waitlist becomes people holding a live card, converting real crypto into real purchases.
- Goal · August 2027
1,000 members spending real money
The proof point: real cards, real conversions, and real support behind them.
- Version one
Multi-currency balances
Confirmed for v1: hold and spend euros, pounds, francs and more alongside crypto and dollars, on the same ledger.
- After that
The rest of a financial life
Getting paid in, family accounts on Metal, a card per merchant, scheduled conversions and international transfers. Each is planned, and none exists yet.
The long-term company: the account where the balance happens to be crypto.
Nova starts as a card because spending is where holders feel the pain first. The company it becomes is the place a holder's money runs from: salary in, spending out, taxes recorded, and the position left alone in between.
Goals, not guarantees. Dates move when the honest answer needs more time.
What could go wrong.
A diligent investor finds these anyway. Here they are, each with what Nova is doing about it.
Custody is still an open decision
The stated direction is that Nova only ever touches the amount of each purchase, and the selected provider is a custodian. The model is decided before any contract is signed.
Licensing takes months, maybe years
The plan runs on the provider's licenses, which only a 50-state legal opinion can confirm. It is started earliest, because it has the longest lead time.
Pricing is not final
The fee table is published as planned pricing, and the model above uses it. Real vendor costs set the final numbers, and the site will say so when they change.
Prices move between tap and settlement
The rate guard is sized per asset and tested against a cost ceiling. The residual is a treasury line to hedge, not something to ignore.
Crypto runs in cycles
Ownership just fell from 14% to 9% of US adults. Nova is built for the holders who stay through a cycle, and stablecoin spending is free.
Words regulators care about
Nova is not a bank, holds no charter or license, and says so on every page. The brand dropped the word "bank" entirely in 2026 to stay clear of state banking law.
Talk to Nova.
Questions, diligence, or the app running on a real phone. Write, and the conversation starts there.
Write to hello@novacard.usThis page does not offer securities and does not invite investment. Any conversation about investment happens privately, and only where the law allows it.