AQUA Dolphin Card shut down in December 2025 — here's what that means if you had one

Updated October 2026

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The AQUA Dolphin Card programme was suspended globally on 4 December 2025, with no relaunch found in subsequent searches. If you came here wondering whether to apply, the short answer is that you cannot: the card is not being issued. If you already have a card, your remaining balance can be recovered in USDT on the Liquid network, but pending merchant refunds will not return to the card. This review walks through what happened, what existing holders should do, and which alternatives from the wider crypto-card market replace what AQUA offered.

The conditions described here are current as of October 28, 2026.

Verdict

AQUA’s Dolphin Card earns 2.4 out of 10 in this assessment. The score reflects a programme that no longer issues new cards, an unnamed card issuer, and a suspension that left cardholders dependent on a USDT refund process rather than a working card.

The card was aimed at people who already used the AQUA wallet and wanted a simple way to spend Bitcoin or stablecoins at Visa-accepting merchants without going through a full bank onboarding. That audience is now left with two tasks: recover any balance from the suspended card, and pick a different card if they still want a crypto-to-fiat spending route. The rest of this review covers both.

What Happened to the Programme

The AQUA wallet launched with a beta of the Dolphin Card on 21 May 2025. The card was offered to users outside the US and Canada, with the AQUA team stating that cards for US and Canada users were hoped for “in the coming months.” The card itself was a virtual Visa denominated in US dollars, reloadable and managed inside the AQUA app under a tab called Marketplace. During the beta, signing up required only a JAN3 account and an emailed verification code, with no identity documents mentioned in the announcement.

Several planned features were not active at launch. Apple Pay and Google Pay support was described as coming “in the coming months” rather than live, and contactless tap-to-pay was not available. The card was virtual only; no physical card or delivery process was described. The card currency was US dollars; other currencies and multi-currency balances were not addressed.

The programme operated from 21 May 2025 until 4 December 2025, when it was suspended.

A third-party review from CriptoNoticias, dated 24 October 2025, described the card as issued in the United States and denominated in US dollars. That same review reported a Spotify payment from Argentina being rejected because the card’s country and the user’s country did not match. The review also confirmed the email-only sign-up and the absence of identity verification, consistent with the official beta announcement. These are unofficial observations and were not confirmed by the card issuer.

The most important dates to keep in mind are 21 May 2025 (beta launch) and 4 December 2025 (global suspension). Anything described as happening on or after 5 December 2025 refers to the refund and recovery process rather than an active card.

If You Already Have the Card

If you held an active Dolphin Card at the time of suspension, the relevant facts are these. The card’s maximum monthly spend was $4,000 US dollars. The card was loaded with BTC, L-BTC or Liquid USDt, via a Card Management page in the AQUA app. A small test load was recommended, and balance updates could take a moment to appear. On-chain BTC top-ups, according to the unofficial CriptoNoticias review, required miner fees and three to four network confirmations before crediting, and the BTC balance was converted automatically to US dollars. The card itself was nameless.

After the suspension, remaining balances are being refunded in USDT on the Liquid network, not in Bitcoin or in fiat. To request a refund, holders use a secure form on the AQUA website. The refund can be sent to the holder’s AQUA wallet or to any Liquid-capable wallet. Processing begins once AQUA receives funds from its (unnamed) card provider, with email confirmations sent along the way. The card provider’s identity is not stated, and refund fees are not stated.

Two limitations matter for existing holders. First, pending merchant refunds will not return to the Dolphin Card, because the card is no longer processing. The process for those refunds is not stated. Second, the support channel is not stated in the beta announcement or in the suspension notice; the post refers readers to the terms of service for the country list rather than to a help desk. The most reliable first step is the secure request form on the AQUA website, which is the channel the suspension notice itself describes.

The unofficial CriptoNoticias review adds one practical detail: on-chain Bitcoin top-ups paid miner fees and waited for three to four network confirmations before the balance appeared. If you are watching a refund, the same kind of delay on the Liquid network is plausible.

A short checklist for someone in this position:

• Stop trying to spend on the card; authorisations will fail.
• Gather your AQUA wallet address or another Liquid-capable wallet address before filling in the refund form.
• Do not expect pending merchant refunds to land on the card; track them with the merchants directly.
• Watch for an email from AQUA confirming the refund has been processed; if no email arrives, the secure form on the website is the documented contact channel.
• Be prepared for the refund to arrive in USDT on Liquid, not in Bitcoin or in your original currency.

What Can Go Wrong

The core risk with AQUA’s Dolphin Card is structural rather than incidental. The card was suspended globally with no named replacement provider, and the issuer of the card was not disclosed. When a card programme has no publicly named issuer, the holder is exposed to counterparty risk in a way that is harder to evaluate than with a bank or a regulated e-money institution.

The history of crypto-card failures provides context. In November 2022, Visa said it had “terminated our global agreements with FTX,” and the FTX US debit-card programme was wound down by its issuer. Earlier, in 2018, Visa suspended the European issuer WaveCrest, which supplied several crypto-card brands, and the affected programmes shut down. Programme closures typically follow a familiar pattern: a notice period, then a stop on new loads, then a stop on spending, then a request to withdraw remaining balances. The AQUA suspension followed the same shape.

There are three specific risks worth keeping in mind with this programme. First, the refund comes in USDT on the Liquid network, which means you need a wallet that supports Liquid USDT to receive it. Second, pending merchant refunds will not return to the card, so any money owed by merchants is effectively stuck in the merchant’s hands unless you can recover it from them directly. Third, the security arrangements of the card are not stated in the beta announcement or in the suspension notice, beyond the JAN3 CEO’s statement that user funds are safe.

Beyond the immediate suspension, the long-term picture is that no relaunch has been found. A card programme can return under a new provider, but until one is named, the working assumption should be that it will not. Treat any balance still on the card as recoverable only through the USDT-on-Liquid refund process.

A brief look at the broader category helps frame these risks. With a self-custody-linked card, the funds stay in the user’s own wallet until the moment of payment, and the user bears responsibility for key loss, phishing and clipboard-hijacking malware that swaps copied addresses. With a custodial card, the provider holds the credentials, and the user must trust the provider completely. AQUA sat in the second group: the Bitcoin and stablecoins were held inside the AQUA wallet while being spent on a Visa number, which meant the user was trusting AQUA and its unnamed card provider at every step.

What to Take Instead

The AQUA card offered a narrow combination: a virtual Visa, US-dollar-denominated, funded from Bitcoin or Liquid USDT, and managed from a single app. None of the alternatives in the wider market match that combination exactly, but several cover parts of it. The list below is meant to illustrate the spread of the market rather than to endorse any single product.

TokenPocket offers a Mastercard or Visa debit card backed by balances in EUR24 and USD24, running on the Arbitrum network. Sign-up covers a list of European countries for Visa and a longer list including Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and the UK for Mastercard, with the Americas listed as planned. TokenPocket partly covers an NFT creation fee, and the public materials state that “apart from these, TP Card does not charge any additional fees.” A 1% fee is charged when depositing cryptocurrency into the TP Card, described as later refundable through rewards or reduced transaction fees. Cashback is not stated. TokenPocket is best suited to users already in the TokenPocket wallet ecosystem who want a debit card on Arbitrum.

MetaMask Card is a Mastercard issued by Monovate, with Crypto Life as the card provider. Sign-up is open in 45 listed countries, with a waitlist elsewhere, and requires proof of residency. The Virtual card is free, with no annual or maintenance fee; the Metal tier costs $199 per year. There is a “minimal fee for each transaction” (the amount is not stated on the pages reviewed), no foreign-transaction fee, and the Mastercard rate is used for currency conversion. The card spends directly from a connected wallet on Linea, Base, Monad or Solana, and lists mUSD, wETH, EURe, GBPe, USDC and USDT among the supported tokens. Cashback is paid in mUSD: 1% on Virtual, with Metal’s headline 3% reduced to 1% after the first $10,000 spent. MetaMask Card is the strongest match for a self-custody user who already has a MetaMask wallet and wants to spend from it directly.

KAST is a Visa programme with virtual and physical cards, up to ten per user, in three tiers: Standard (free annual membership), Premium ($1,000 per year) and Private ($10,000 per year). Account balances are in US dollars, with stablecoin deposits converted 1:1 at a 0% spread. KYC is residence-based, with citizenship and ID also checked; if a country is not listed at KYC, the card is not available there, and VPN does not bypass this. Funding is in stablecoins, including USDT, USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD, across Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum and TRON. The published fee structure is competitive: 0% on stablecoin top-ups, card spend in USD, transactions and Apple/Google Pay; non-USD FX fees of 0.5% to 1.75% depending on country and programme; small fees for sub-$25 non-USD transactions and declined authorisations. Cashback in USD ranges from 1.5% on Standard to 3% on Private, with additional KAST Points on the upper tiers. KAST suits users who want a tiered programme with physical cards and predictable fees, and who can meet its KYC requirements.

The honest comparison is that none of these cards are an exact replacement for what AQUA offered. AQUA’s narrow feature set (Bitcoin in, virtual Visa out, single app) is closer in spirit to a self-custody card than to a full bank-replacement programme, and MetaMask Card comes closest to that model.

If your main reason for looking at AQUA was a Bitcoin-funded card managed from a wallet app, the closest live option in this list is MetaMask Card. If your main reason was a stablecoin-funded card with tiered rewards and physical options, KAST is the more developed offering. If you were already inside the TokenPocket wallet, its card programme is the path of least change.

Who I Would Recommend It To

I would not recommend the AQUA Dolphin Card to anyone looking to apply today, because it is not being issued. The score of 2.4 out of 10 is set by the suspension, the unnamed issuer, the absence of a published relaunch, and the fact that the only meaningful action for a user is the USDT-on-Liquid refund process.

For existing cardholders, the recommendation is narrower: use the secure form on the AQUA website to claim your remaining balance in USDT on Liquid, and do not expect pending merchant refunds to come back to the card. For people who want a similar product going forward, the alternatives in the previous section give a range of options depending on whether you prioritise self-custody, low fees, tiered rewards, or simply staying inside a wallet you already use.

A reader who only needs to spend Bitcoin or stablecoins at merchants that take Visa, and who is comfortable with a self-custody wallet, will find a better fit in MetaMask Card. A reader who wants a tiered programme with physical cards and stablecoin funding will find KAST more developed. A reader who is already inside the TokenPocket ecosystem can use TokenPocket’s card without changing wallets.

The category as a whole has a structural problem that the AQUA suspension illustrates. Crypto cards depend on a card-issuing partner, and when that partner pulls out, the programme ends for users even if the wallet behind it keeps working. Anyone choosing a crypto card today should look first at who the named issuer is, what jurisdiction it sits in, and what the documented recovery process is if the programme is suspended. A card with an unnamed issuer and a refund process that depends on a “secure request form” is a card with a thinner safety net than a card with a regulated e-money institution behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the AQUA card?

The AQUA card, branded as Dolphin Card, was a virtual Visa denominated in US dollars, managed inside the AQUA wallet app, and funded with Bitcoin, L-BTC or Liquid USDT. It was offered as a beta from 21 May 2025 and was suspended globally on 4 December 2025.

How does the AQUA card work?

In its beta form, the card was a virtual Visa number linked to a balance loaded through the AQUA app’s Card Management page. Users topped up with BTC, L-BTC or Liquid USDt, the balance was held inside the AQUA wallet, and the card drew on that balance at the point of sale. The card is no longer processing authorisations.

Is AQUA a bank?

AQUA is a wallet product run by JAN3, not a bank. The card issuer was not named in the public materials. The card functioned like a prepaid card drawing on an internal balance rather than a debit card linked to a bank account.

Who owns AQUA?

AQUA is operated by JAN3, the company that announced both the beta launch and the suspension.

Is the AQUA card available in my country?

The card is not being issued anywhere. The original beta was open to users outside the US and Canada, with cards for US and Canada users hoped for “in the coming months,” and that never happened. A third-party review described a payment from Argentina being declined because the card’s country and the user’s country did not match.

Can I use the AQUA card in my country?

The card is not processing authorisations after the 4 December 2025 suspension. Before that, geographic acceptance depended on whether the merchant accepted Visa and whether the card’s US-issued country matched the user’s billing country.

How do I get an AQUA card?

You cannot. The programme is closed, and no replacement provider or relaunch has been announced. The card is no longer being issued.

Does the AQUA card require KYC?

During the beta, signing up required only a JAN3 account and an emailed verification code, with no identity documents mentioned in the official announcement. A third-party review confirmed that the sign-up needed only an email address, with no identity verification step.

How do I top up the AQUA card?

The card is no longer being topped up. During the beta, the Card Management page in the AQUA app accepted BTC, L-BTC or Liquid USDt, with a small test load recommended. On-chain BTC top-ups required miner fees and three to four network confirmations.

How do I withdraw money from AQUA after the suspension?

Use the secure request form on the AQUA website. Remaining balances are refunded in USDT on the Liquid network, to an AQUA wallet or any Liquid-capable wallet. Processing begins once AQUA receives funds from its card provider, and email confirmations are sent along the way.

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