What Nova is today
This is Nova Bank's own disclosure of its status. It states what exists today, what is simulated, and what the risks are, so that nothing written elsewhere on this site can leave a misleading impression. Where any other page, message or screen conflicts with this one, this page governs.
Nova Bank is not a bank. It holds no banking charter and no money-transmission licence. It holds no customer money and no customer crypto. It has never processed a payment. There is no deposit insurance, because there are no deposits. Every financial figure in the app is simulated.
1. Status of each capability
The table below is complete as at the effective date above. A capability that is not listed does not exist.
| Capability | Status today |
|---|---|
| Banking charter | None |
| Money-transmission licence | None |
| Card issuer | None. Simulated behind a software interface. No issuer has been selected, and none has been approached as a signed partner. |
| Custodian for crypto | None. Simulated. |
| Identity verification (KYC) | None. The screens exist; the checks are simulated. |
| Real money movement | None, and none has ever taken place. |
| Real crypto custody | None. Nova Bank has never held a customer asset. |
| Billing and subscriptions | Not live. Tiers are priced on paper. Nothing is charged and no payment method is collected. |
| Deposit insurance | None, and none is applicable. There are no deposits. |
| Accounts and sign-in | Real. Email address and password, with a six-digit code to confirm the account. Two-factor authentication is optional. |
| Waitlist | Real. Nova Bank stores, solely in order to write to you: your email address, the plan you selected, your referral codes, the campaign parameters in the link you followed, and — if you used the cost calculator — the spend, stablecoin mix and tier it suggested, together with your device class and browser timezone. No IP address, no location, no advertising identifiers, and no analytics or tracking of any kind. Any of it will be deleted on request. |
| Market prices in the app | Real market data, shown for display only. These are not executable quotes. |
| iOS app | Real and working — the full product loop, with simulated financials throughout. |
2. What "simulated" means in this document
Simulated does not mean a mock-up or a slideshow. The app runs a complete, working model: a card that authorises and settles, an event-sourced ledger, cost-basis accounting, and fee and rate-guard logic. The arithmetic is real arithmetic. What is not real is the money it is applied to. Every service that would touch an actual asset — the card issuer, the custodian, the liquidity venue, the identity checker — sits behind a software boundary with a simulated implementation on the other side of it.
Nova Bank was built this way deliberately, and states it here rather than allowing a reader to assume otherwise.
3. Risk disclosures
3.1 Nova Bank may not continue to exist
Nova Bank is two people building in the evenings and at weekends. It has no outside investors. It may never launch. Joining the waitlist is intended to cost you nothing beyond an email address, and should be treated as costing exactly that.
3.2 Nothing described on this site is committed
Prices, tiers, fees, card designs, supported assets and features are a design in progress. Several fundamental decisions remain genuinely open, including who would hold the crypto, which jurisdiction Nova Bank would licence in, and which card issuer it would use. Any of them could change the product substantially.
3.3 Cryptoassets are volatile and largely unregulated
If Nova Bank launches, the product would involve cryptoassets. The value of cryptoassets can fall sharply and you could lose money. Cryptoassets are not covered by deposit-protection schemes such as FDIC insurance in the United States or the FSCS in the United Kingdom, and in many jurisdictions they are not regulated at all. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
3.4 Nothing here is advice
Nothing on this site or in the app is investment, tax, legal or financial advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any asset. The tax figures in the app demonstrate a calculation. They are not a tax return and must not be relied on as one.
3.5 Simulated data is not retained by Nova Bank
Your simulated history is held on your device only. Nova Bank holds no backup and cannot restore it. Deleting the app deletes it.
4. Standards Nova Bank holds itself to
One rule governs every public statement: no false claims, anywhere, ever. Nova Bank does not describe itself as "FDIC insured", "licensed", "regulated", "chartered", "secure", "guaranteed" or "protected". It does not publish invented user counts, investors or partnerships, and it does not name a vendor as a partner unless a contract is signed. Anything not yet real is labelled as such — Simulated, Demo balance, Preview rate, Planned, Not live yet.
If you find a claim on this site that breaks that rule, please report it to hello@novacard.us. It will be corrected.
5. Conditions to be met before Nova Bank is an operating company
- A card issuer and a custodian under contract, so that money can actually move.
- First real customers onboarded onto a real card with real money.
- A registered entity, a chosen jurisdiction, and a decided licensing path.
None of the three is complete. This page will be updated as each is met, and Nova Bank will not describe itself as a bank or as licensed until it is genuinely both.
6. Contact
Questions about anything on this page, or about what Nova Bank is and is not, are welcome: hello@novacard.us. Messages are read by the two people building Nova Bank, and answered plainly. Security matters should go to security@novacard.us instead, and are covered by Security & disclosure.
7. Changes to this page
This page is versioned and dated at the top. It is updated in the same session as the fact that changed it, so that the record and the product never disagree for long.