Shadow
Good
- No ID documents, just an email or account key and a crypto deposit
- 0% FX markup and no fee on individual payments
- Aurora works with Apple Pay and Google Pay for tap in person
- Six deposit assets, including USDT, USDC, BTC and XMR
Watch out
- About 5.47% in deposit and load fees on every dollar you spend
- No cashback or rewards on any card
- Virtual only, and ATM withdrawals are blocked
- Cards cost $25 or $45 and retire after three idle months
Nocturne Card is a virtual prepaid card that you fund with crypto and spend in US dollars, with no ID documents needed to sign up. The card costs $25 (Shadow) or $45 (Aurora) once, deposits and card loads take about 5.47% together, and the card pays no cashback.
Nocturne is a web dashboard rather than an app: you sign up with an email address or a 12-word account key, deposit BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, LTC or XMR, and a card is ready in about a minute. Shadow covers online payments and Google Pay, while Aurora adds Apple Pay and tap to pay in shops.
Nocturne Card cashback
Nocturne Card pays no cashback on either card, and Nocturne has no points, tiers or token rewards that change that.
The two cards differ in what they can do, not in what they pay back. Aurora costs $20 more than Shadow because it adds Apple Pay and in-person contactless payments, and an existing Shadow can be upgraded to Aurora for $30 with a new card number.
Nocturne also sells an Eclipse card for advertising spend, which only works at ad platforms, software and digital media merchants. It isn't a general-purpose card, so the tables on this page cover Shadow and Aurora.
| Plan | To unlock | Base cashback | FX fee | Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shadow | Free | 0% | 0% | —, virtual $25 |
 Aurora | Free | 0% | 0% | —, virtual $45 |
Nocturne Card fees
Nocturne Card charges a 0.49% fee on every deposit and a 5% fee when you move balance onto a card, so about 5.47% of every dollar you deposit goes to fees before you spend it.
According to Nocturne's pricing page, a $1,000 deposit loses $4.90 to the deposit fee and $49.76 to the load fee, and $945.35 lands on the card. The load fee falls to 3.5% as your last 30 days of load volume grows, but Nocturne doesn't publish the volume needed for each step. Deposits on Tron and Monero also carry the payment processor's network fee, shown before you send.
Once the money is on a card, payments cost nothing: Nocturne adds no fee per purchase and no FX markup, so a payment in euros or pounds converts at the card network's rate. There's no monthly fee, but a card needs $29 of spending or loading a month to stay active, and after three idle months it retires and the balance returns to your account minus a 1% fee.
That 1% fee also applies whenever you move money from a card back to your Nocturne balance, including when you close a card yourself. The balance can't be withdrawn as crypto or cash, so plan to spend what you deposit.
Nocturne Card ATM withdrawal fees
Nocturne Card can't be used at ATMs, because cash withdrawals are one of the merchant categories its card issuers block.
Both cards are virtual, so there's no physical card to put in a machine, and Nocturne's terms also block manual cash-out desks and forbid using the card for money orders or gift cards. If you need cash from your crypto, a card with a physical version and published ATM fees is the better choice.
Is Nocturne Card safe?
Nocturne Card is custodial: your crypto is converted to a US dollar balance when it arrives, and that balance is held through Nocturne's issuing partners until you spend it.
Nocturne is run by Noctavel LLC, a company registered in Wyoming, and its terms say it is a technology company, not a bank or e-money institution. The cards are issued by third-party financial institutions that Nocturne doesn't name, and balances aren't covered by any deposit insurance scheme.
Privacy is the main selling point, but the terms describe it as data minimisation rather than anonymity. Incoming deposits go through automated anti-money-laundering screening, and a flagged transfer can be held until the sender completes verification with the payment processor. Nocturne can also ask for ID after a sanctions match or suspected fraud.
Card numbers are shown once at creation and stored encrypted, and every card supports 3-D Secure. Since the balance can't be withdrawn, keep only what you plan to spend soon on the account.
Who should get Nocturne Card
Nocturne Card suits people who hold crypto, want a working card within minutes and don't want to upload an ID to get it.
Aurora is the card to pick if you pay in shops, because it adds Apple Pay and tap to pay, and Nocturne says it is accepted at AI subscription checkouts such as ChatGPT and Claude. Shadow is enough for online payments and Google Pay on Android.
The fees make it a poor everyday card. Spending $500 a month costs about $27 in deposit and load fees, or roughly $328 a year, before the one-off card price, and you earn nothing back. If you're willing to complete identity checks, the comparison below shows cheaper cards in your country.
Where Nocturne Card is available
Nocturne Card is available in most countries, since Nocturne only excludes sanctioned and prohibited jurisdictions and sign-up asks only for an email address or an account key.
Some networks, including parts of Russia and the CIS, filter the Nocturne dashboard, and the terms allow a VPN or residential connection to reach it. Merchants can still decline a card under their own country rules, so a few checkouts may not accept it.