A crypto Visa that ran for six months and stopped, and what to take instead

Updated October 2026

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The AQUA card was a virtual Visa tied to the AQUA wallet app, marketed to people who had trouble getting an ordinary bank card. The beta launched in May 2025, the programme was suspended worldwide in December 2025, and no relaunch has been confirmed. If you are reading this, you are probably one of two people: someone who already held a Dolphin Card and wants to know what to do next, or someone who heard about the card and is wondering whether to wait for it to come back. This page walks through what actually happened, what it means for existing balances, and which cards from other providers can fill the gap. The score below reflects that the card is no longer issuing and that, even at launch, several promised features never went live.

Conditions on this page are current as of October 28, 2026.

Verdict

AQUA scores 2.4 out of 10. The reason is straightforward: you cannot get this card right now. The programme was suspended globally on 4 December 2025 after a problem with the card provider, and as of the checks done for this review no alternative provider or relaunch date has been announced. If you already have a card, the only question that matters is how to get your balance back; if you do not, the only sensible move is to look at alternatives that are actually issuing.

If you already have a card, the rest of this page tells you what to do with the money left on it. If you are a new user looking for a crypto card that is actually issuing, jump to the alternatives section.

What happened to the programme

The AQUA card, also called the Dolphin Card, was announced on 21 May 2025 as a beta feature inside the AQUA wallet app, a product of JAN3. The card sat in the AQUA app’s Marketplace, was virtual only, denominated in US dollars, and could be reloaded with bitcoin, L-BTC (Liquid Bitcoin) or USDt issued on the Liquid network. At launch, it was open to users outside the United States and Canada, with US and Canada support described as something the team hoped to add “in the coming months.” Some merchants in certain countries were already unsupported at beta.

Sign-up was unusually light for a card product. You needed a JAN3 account and a verification code sent by email; identity documents were not mentioned. The unofficial CriptoNoticias review from 24 October 2025 confirmed that an email address alone was enough to create a card, and that the reviewer’s own attempt to pay Spotify from Argentina failed because the card’s US-issued country and the user’s country did not match. The card was, in other words, nominally issued in the United States and USD-denominated, even when the cardholder was somewhere else.

Several features the team described as “planned” never went live. Apple Pay and Google Pay were listed as coming in the months after launch, but were not available when the beta started. Tap-to-pay was not offered, and there was no physical card and no delivery process to describe. The card app was the AQUA wallet itself, at release 0.3.0 beta, blogged on 21 May 2025. App store ratings and supported platforms were not stated on the public pages.

Then, on 4 December 2025, the programme was suspended globally “effective immediately.” The announcement, posted on the Aqua channels, blamed a problem with the card provider. The provider was not named. Other Aqua wallet services continued to work. JAN3’s CEO had said on 30 November 2025 that partners had told him all cards would be suspended and that the team was looking for alternative providers; searches done for this review in 2026 did not turn up a replacement provider or a relaunch date. Pending merchant refunds to the card, the kind that appear when a shop sends your money back after a return, will not be returned to the Dolphin Card. That is a one-way loss for the user.

To summarise the timeline: beta announced 21 May 2025, cards working in beta, suspension announced 4 December 2025, no restoration as of the most recent check. The card’s working life spanned from May to December 2025.

If you already have the card

If you are a current cardholder, two questions are likely on your mind: how do I get my money back, and what about the refunds I was expecting from shops? Both have answers, and neither is fully satisfactory.

Your remaining balance is being returned in USDt on the Liquid network. You do not have to do anything until you are contacted, but the public notice from Aqua said refunds are handled through a secure request form on the website, and the USDt can be sent either to your AQUA wallet or to any other wallet that supports Liquid. Processing starts once Aqua receives the funds from its card provider, with email confirmations along the way. Refund fees were not stated. In practice this means there is a queue, and your USDt arrives after the upstream provider sends money to Aqua, not immediately after you fill in the form.

Pending refunds from merchants will not come back to the card. If you returned a product to a shop in November and the shop issued a refund, that refund will not land on the suspended Dolphin Card. You will need to arrange the refund another way, typically by giving the merchant a different card or a bank account. This is a real loss for anyone who relied on the card for online shopping and is now mid-return.

The card’s spending and loading limits, where stated, were modest. The published maximum was $4,000 US dollars per month. Top-ups were reloadable through the Card Management page in the AQUA app, and the official beta post recommended a small test load first because balance updates could take a moment. Unofficial coverage adds that on-chain BTC top-ups also need miner fees and three to four network confirmations before crediting, and that the BTC balance is converted to US dollars automatically. The card was nameless, meaning it did not carry the cardholder’s printed name, which can trigger extra checks at some merchants.

Support channels were not stated in the beta post. The terms of service were where the country list was supposed to live, but no support email or live chat was named. If you cannot find what you need on the Aqua site, the request form is the most reliable route.

A few things to be careful about while you wait for the refund: do not pay anyone who contacts you claiming to “expedite” the refund in exchange for a fee, do not sign a transaction you do not understand, and keep records of your card balance from before the suspension. If you are asked for personal information to “verify” your refund, double-check that the form is hosted on the official Aqua domain before you enter anything.

What can go wrong

The risks of this card are not theoretical; they have already played out.

The most obvious risk is the one that has already happened. The provider behind the card had a problem, the programme was suspended worldwide, and there is no replacement provider announced. Programme closures of this kind tend to follow a pattern: a notice period, then spending and loading are stopped, then users are asked to withdraw remaining balances. The risk is that the upstream provider takes time to send funds back, leaving users waiting for USDt that does not arrive on the schedule they expected. There is also a single, unconfirmed 2026 report of a different programme where new loads ended on 8 July 2026 and spending stopped on 8 August 2026. That is not AQUA, but it is the shape a wind-down can take.

The second risk is what is missing from the public record. The card issuer was never named in the public materials. The card provider is unnamed. Security controls on the card itself, two-factor authentication, freeze toggles, biometric confirmation, were not stated in the beta post. The CEO did say user funds were safe, but the user report side of the picture is thin: no Reddit threads or Trustpilot reviews were found during research. That can mean a small user base, or it can mean a quiet failure; you cannot tell from silence alone.

The third risk is the cross-border shape of the card. The card was reportedly issued in the United States and denominated in US dollars. If you are in a different country, two things follow. First, Address Verification Service, a system merchants use to compare the numeric parts of your billing address with the issuer’s records, is mainly offered in the US, Canada and the UK and is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards, which can cause declines. Second, the merchant sees a US issuer BIN (the first six or eight digits of the card number that identify the issuing institution) and a non-US customer, and may apply extra scrutiny or block the transaction. The Spotify decline reported in the CriptoNoticias review is a concrete example. So is the general pattern of merchants declining prepaid or foreign BINs because the BIN lookup reveals the card type and issuer country.

The fourth risk is operational rather than criminal. Authorisation holds can sit on a card balance for several days, up to about a week, even if the merchant later cancels the transaction. If a hold is still in place when the card is suspended, that portion of your balance may not be available to refund. Watch your app for pending authorisations and consider paying small amounts with cards that are not in wind-down.

The fifth risk is regulatory. Crypto cards sit on top of two licences: the payment side, e-money or payment-services law, and the crypto side, where the EU’s MiCA rules on crypto-asset service providers applied from 30 December 2024 and its stablecoin rules from 30 June 2024. A programme run by a company that does not have a MiCA authorisation in the EU, or that is not authorised in your jurisdiction, has fewer regulatory backstops for you. Custodial platforms have a long history of failures, from Mt. Gox to Coincheck to Ronin, and the fact that a card says “crypto” does not make it safer than a bank; it can be the opposite.

The sixth risk is irreversible loss. Cryptocurrency transfers cannot be reversed by the network. If a refund is sent on a network the card provider does not support, or to an address on the wrong network, recovery is manual and not guaranteed. Send a test transaction first when in doubt.

A short list of the practical takeaways:

• The card programme is suspended. Treat any balance as in the process of being returned, not available for new spending.
• Pending merchant refunds will not return to the card. Arrange a separate refund path with each merchant.
• USDt refunds arrive on the Liquid network. Make sure you have a Liquid-capable wallet before requesting one to an external address.
• A nameless, US-issued, USD-denominated card will look foreign to many non-US merchants and may be declined.
• Authorisation holds of up to seven days can reduce the balance that ends up refundable.

What to take instead

Because the AQUA card is no longer issuing, the relevant comparison is between alternative crypto cards that you can actually apply for today. The three below are the most useful references, chosen because they cover different parts of the spectrum: a free virtual card from a major wallet, a paid Metal tier with a clear cashback structure, and a multi-tier programme that mixes virtual and physical cards with stablecoin top-ups.

The differences are worth reading carefully. TokenPocket’s TP Card is the closest in spirit to AQUA: a wallet-native card with a single-network focus (Arbitrum) and a refundable deposit fee. The catch is that the fee is refunded “later via rewards” rather than waived, so the headline of zero additional fees is only partly true. The country list is also narrower than the alternatives, and the Americas rollout was still described as planned for Q2 2025 in the materials reviewed.

MetaMask Card is the strongest of the three for everyday use where it is available, and that is a real limitation. Sign-up is open in about 45 countries, with US and UK sign-ups temporarily closed per the FAQ. The Virtual card is free with no annual or maintenance fee, and the Metal tier at $199/year is a deliberate premium product rather than a hidden cost. Cashback is paid in mUSD into the Money Account, and the published structure is clear: 1% on Virtual, 3% on the first $10,000 of Metal spend then 1% after that. The card is issued by Monovate and the card provider is Crypto Life; the card currency is not stated in the public pages. You spend directly from your connected wallet on Linea, Base, Monad and Solana, which is a more modern chain mix than most cards. The fact that Solana-only wallets cannot withdraw credit is a small but real constraint.

KAST is the most structured of the three. It has three paid tiers (Standard is $0/year, Premium $1,000/year, Private $10,000/year, all billed annually upfront) and three card materials (Visa Platinum, Visa Infinite metal, Visa Infinite gold plated) plus a few themed designs. Cashback scales with tier and is paid in US dollars when a transaction is authorised. The fee schedule is the most transparent of the three: 0% on stablecoin top-ups and on US-dollar card spend, 0.5% to 1.75% on non-USD FX, and small flat fees for tiny non-USD transactions and declines. The country rules are also the strictest: KAST is not available in countries not on its KYC list, and the list is not published, so you have to start the sign-up to find out. The terms of service say acceptable tokens are “currently USDT and USDC,” which conflicts with the app’s listing of PYUSD and RLUSD; assume the app is the more current source.

A few honest caveats. The 0% FX on US-dollar spend in KAST applies to spending in US dollars, not to holding balances in other currencies; if you spend in euros or pounds you will pay the FX fee. MetaMask’s “minimal fee” is not quantified on the pages read, so the real cost of a transaction is partly hidden behind a fee table link. TokenPocket’s deposit fee is refundable but the timing of the refund is not spelled out, so the effective cost of using the card for a few months is not zero. None of these cards is a perfect swap for AQUA: each has a narrower country list, a different network focus, and a different reward structure. The point of comparing them is to give you a starting point, not to crown a winner.

A practical note on what to check before applying for any of these:

• Whether your country of residence is on the published list, or whether the programme checks at KYC and you have to start the sign-up to find out.
• What your citizenship is, separately from where you live. Some programmes screen on citizenship and country of birth as well as on address.
• Whether the card you want is virtual only, virtual plus physical, or both, and what the physical card costs and where it ships.
• The networks and tokens you can fund with, because a card that only takes USDC on Solana is not useful if you hold bitcoin.
• The fee line that says “no foreign transaction fee” or “FX 0.5% to 1.75%”. Both are true, but the second one is more useful at high spend.

Who I would recommend it to

In the strict sense, I would not recommend AQUA to anyone right now, because you cannot get it. The card is suspended, no replacement provider is on the table, and the practical question for a new user is which other programme to apply to instead.

For the narrower audience that does still have a stake, the recommendations are different. If you hold a Dolphin Card with a remaining balance, your priority is to follow Aqua’s published refund process and not to send money to anyone who claims they can speed it up. If you are expecting a refund from a merchant that was originally going to land on the card, contact the merchant now and give them a different card or a bank account; the suspended card will not receive that money. If you are considering waiting to see whether the card relaunches in 2026, treat that as speculation; nothing on the public record supports it.

For anyone reading this who was drawn to AQUA because ordinary banking is difficult, the right next step is to look at MetaMask Card or KAST, depending on whether you are in one of their listed countries, and to check the country rules before you start the sign-up. If you are in a country where neither is available, the search has to go wider, and the criteria above (country list, KYC level, supported networks, fee schedule, reward structure) are the ones to apply.

Frequently asked questions

What is the AQUA card?

The AQUA card, also called the Dolphin Card, was a virtual Visa card that lived inside the AQUA wallet app and was issued by JAN3. It was reloadable with bitcoin, L-BTC or USDt on the Liquid network and was open to users outside the US and Canada at launch. The programme was suspended worldwide on 4 December 2025 after a problem with the card provider.

How did the AQUA card work?

You created a JAN3 account, verified it with an emailed code, and opened a virtual Visa from the AQUA app’s Marketplace. You loaded it with BTC, L-BTC or Liquid USDt, and any bitcoin balance was converted to US dollars automatically. Spending was capped at $4,000 per month, and there was no physical card. The card has not worked since 4 December 2025.

Is AQUA a bank?

No. AQUA is a wallet app, and the card programme was run by JAN3. The actual card issuer was not named in the public materials, which is one of the reasons it is hard to know who is on the hook for what during the wind-down. Treat it as a wallet-and-card product, not as a bank account.

Who owns AQUA?

AQUA is a product of JAN3, the company behind the AQUA wallet. JAN3’s CEO communicated the suspension and the search for alternative providers, but the ownership chain behind the card itself, including the card issuer and the card provider, is not described on the public pages.

Is the AQUA card available in my country?

At launch, the card was open to users outside the US and Canada, with US and Canada support described as planned. Some merchants in certain countries were already unsupported. As of the most recent check, the card is not available anywhere because the programme is suspended. For current options, see the alternatives section.

How do I apply for the AQUA card?

You cannot, right now. The application flow when the beta was live was: create a JAN3 account, verify it with an emailed code, open the AQUA app, and request a Dolphin Card from the Marketplace. The only identity check was email verification; no ID documents were mentioned. That flow is closed.

Does the AQUA card require KYC?

During the beta, the only step was a JAN3 account with email verification. Identity documents were not mentioned in the official beta post, and an unofficial review confirmed that an email address alone was enough. The wider AQUA wallet may have its own KYC steps, and KYC requirements typically increase if a programme moves out of beta and into a regulated market.

How do I top up the AQUA card?

When the beta was running, you topped up through the Card Management page in the AQUA app with BTC, L-BTC or USDt on the Liquid network. On-chain bitcoin top-ups also required miner fees and three to four network confirmations before the balance updated. The post-suspension process for getting your money back is different and is described in the holders section.

How do I get my money back from the suspended AQUA card?

Remaining balances are being refunded in USDt on the Liquid network through a secure request form on the Aqua website. USDt can be sent to your AQUA wallet or to any other Liquid-capable wallet. Processing starts once Aqua receives funds from its card provider, and you will get email confirmations. Pending refunds from merchants will not be returned to the card.

Is the AQUA card safe?

While it was running, the card sat inside the AQUA app and used Liquid for top-ups, but the card issuer, the card provider, and the security controls on the card itself were not stated in the public materials. The bigger safety question is operational: the programme is now suspended, and the safety of any remaining balance depends on Aqua getting funds back from its unnamed provider. For funds you still control, the general rule is that custody of crypto belongs to whoever holds the private key or seed phrase, and that a stolen key has no built-in recovery because blockchain transfers are irreversible.

Content created by the «cryptocardcheck» team