NovaVault

Novavault is a cross-chain, recoverable DeFi smart wallet that unifies USDC liquidity across multiple chains while solving one of Web3’s biggest problems: permanent fund loss due to private key loss.

Today, users hold assets fragmented across chains and protocols. If a private key is lost, funds are permanently inaccessible. novavault addresses this by combining guardian-based recovery, ENS identity, Arc’s unified liquidity model, and Circle’s MPC wallets.

The system treats USDC across chains as a single liquidity surface. When users interact with DeFi, funds are routed seamlessly using Arc and CCTP. If a wallet is lost, guardians approve recovery, funds are migrated securely to a new Circle MPC wallet, and ENS ownership is updated — restoring control without exposing private keys.

novavault abstracts cross-chain complexity while enabling secure, programmable recovery and policy-controlled execution. The result is a safer, recoverable, cross-chain DeFi vault built for real-world usage.

Pitch Deck: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHAuoc2To0/AY0KxpcsTjseX2fczsF5Ig/edit?utm_content=DAHAuoc2To0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

novavault is built using a modular architecture combining smart contracts, backend orchestration, and programmable wallets.

On-chain logic includes a RecoveryController contract deployed on Arc that tracks guardian approvals stored via ENS text records on Ethereum Sepolia. Once a recovery threshold is met, the backend listens for emitted events and initiates a fund migration process.

We use Circle’s developer-controlled MPC wallets as execution accounts. During recovery, a new Circle wallet is created, the old wallet is frozen, and USDC is unified across chains using Arc’s routing system. Cross-chain settlement is performed using Bridge Kit (CCTP), ensuring secure migration of funds to the new wallet.

ENS is used both as an identity layer and recovery policy registry. After fund migration is confirmed, the resolver’s address record is updated (and optionally ownership transferred), ensuring the ENS name points to the restored wallet.

DeFi interactions are executed through Uniswap v4 hooks deployed on Unichain, allowing swaps and liquidity provisioning while maintaining a unified treasury view via Arc.

The frontend is built with Next.js, wagmi, and viem for ENS resolution and contract interaction. The backend uses Node.js API routes to orchestrate Circle Wallet APIs, Gateway policy enforcement, Arc routing, and recovery execution logic. Hardhat is used for contract compilation and deployment.

A particularly notable design choice is separating recovery approval (on-chain) from fund migration (off-chain but policy-controlled), allowing secure, deterministic recovery without exposing private keys or relying on multisig custodians.