Aurora Wallet: ETH Gas, NEAR Accounts and Rainbow Bridge Waits

An Aurora wallet is an EVM wallet that holds ETH and tokens on Aurora, an Ethereum-compatible chain that runs as a smart contract on NEAR Protocol. You get a normal 0x address and pay gas in ETH, at a fixed price with no fee auction. Transfers confirm in about a second and cost a fraction of a cent.

Aurora sits between two worlds, and that's where most mistakes start. Your Aurora address isn't your NEAR account, ETH on Ethereum isn't ETH on Aurora, and the Rainbow Bridge back to Ethereum can take up to 16 hours. Figures below are as of October 2026.

Aurora at a glance#

How an Aurora wallet works#

Aurora is an Ethereum virtual machine running inside a single NEAR smart contract. You sign an ordinary Ethereum transaction and pay in ETH. A relayer then wraps it in a NEAR transaction, pays the NEAR gas itself, and submits it. For you, Aurora behaves like any EVM chain.

Your Aurora wallet address vs your NEAR account#

Your Aurora wallet address is a 0x address, the same one you have on Ethereum, Base or any other EVM network. In Keylo, every EVM network shares that address, derived on m/44'/60'/0'/0/0, the standard path MetaMask uses.

A NEAR account is something else. It's either a named account such as alice.near or a 64-character implicit account, and it comes from a different key. Keylo shows a NEAR account under NEAR, and it's a separate balance from Aurora. Sending between them takes a bridge, not a normal transfer.

Why gas is in ETH, not NEAR or AURORA#

Aurora prices gas in ETH so Ethereum users feel at home. The relayer converts your fee into NEAR gas behind the scenes. AURORA, the project's governance token, is an ERC-20 like any other here, and it can't pay fees. If your wallet says you lack funds for gas on Aurora, you need ETH on Aurora specifically.

How to choose an Aurora wallet#

Any EVM wallet can be an Aurora wallet once it knows chain ID 1313161554. Searches for an Aurora wallet also turn up Tari Aurora, an app for the unrelated Tari network, so check which one you're reading about.

• MetaMask and other extension wallets. Aurora's docs point users to aurora.dev/start to add the network. These connect to the Rainbow Bridge, Aurora+ and other dapps.

• Aurora Pass. Aurora's own non-custodial mobile wallet. You log in with email or an Apple or Google account, and Aurora's docs say that login brings 50 free transactions a month. It also supports WalletConnect.

• Hardware wallets. Devices such as Ledger pair with MetaMask for large balances.

• Web wallets. These open in a browser tab with nothing to install. Keylo is one of them.

When you pick a wallet for Aurora, check that it labels the network clearly, since ETH on Ethereum and ETH on Aurora look identical. It should also show each token's contract, because several contracts on Aurora carry the name USDC. And if you'll bridge, it must connect to the Rainbow Bridge site.

Keylo works if you want to hold and send ETH and tokens on Aurora from any browser, next to your other networks, with deposits listed as they arrive. However, it can't bridge, swap or connect to dapps on Aurora, so you'll need another wallet to move funds in or out.

How to set up an Aurora wallet in Keylo#

Aurora comes preloaded in Keylo, so you don't add RPC details.

1. Visit the Keylo sign-up form, fill in your full name, email, phone number and password, and tap Create account.

2. If you see "Check your inbox", confirm your email.

3. Select Create a new wallet. Your browser generates the 12-word recovery phrase and encrypts it under a key made from your password with Argon2id, then AES-256-GCM. Keylo stores only that ciphertext.

4. Tap Aurora in your asset list to see your 0x address.

5. Back up the phrase. Open Settings, then Recovery phrase, enter your password and tap Show my phrase. Write the words on paper, tap I wrote them down and confirm three of them.

6. Turn on Two-factor authentication and set an Anti-phishing code in Settings too.

If the phrase is lost, Keylo has no way to rebuild the wallet, because it never held a readable copy. A password reset doesn't decrypt the vault.

Importing from MetaMask or Aurora Pass#

Choose Import a recovery phrase and enter your 12 or 24 words. A MetaMask phrase opens the same Aurora address and balance. Aurora Pass also gives you a 12-word phrase you can export, and its docs say that phrase can be imported into MetaMask. Even so, compare the address Keylo shows with the one in Aurora Pass before you move anything.

USDC and other tokens on Aurora#

Keylo reads Aurora Explorer's index of your address, so ETH and every token you hold appear on their own, including WNEAR and AURORA. The index also lists tokens strangers send you, and a token's name proves nothing. Check a token's contract against this list, taken from Aurora Explorer on October 24, 2026:

• USDC (Rainbow Bridged) 0xB12BFcA5A55806AaF64E99521918A4bf0fC40802, 6 decimals, about 15,000 holders

• USDT.e (Rainbow Bridged) 0x4988a896b1227218e4A686fdE5EabdcAbd91571f, 6 decimals

• AURORA 0x8BEc47865aDe3B172A928df8f990Bc7f2A3b9f79, 18 decimals

• WNEAR 0xC42C30aC6Cc15faC9bD938618BcaA1a1FaE8501d, 24 decimals

Other, much smaller contracts also use the name USDC, the biggest of them 0x368EBb46ACa6b8D0787C96B2b20bD3CC3F2c45F7. They're different tokens, so check which one a sender or app means. If a token you hold doesn't appear, add it under Settings, Networks, Custom tokens, Add token with its contract, symbol and decimals.

How to receive ETH and tokens on Aurora#

1. Tap Receive and choose Aurora. The screen says "Receive on Aurora" and shows a QR code.

2. Tap Copy or Share, or show the code to the sender.

3. If an exchange sends to you, confirm that it lists Aurora as a withdrawal network before you paste your address.

4. Open Activity on the Aurora page. Deposits show up there next to your own sends once Aurora Explorer indexes them.

The screen also notes that every EVM network in Keylo shares this address. So ETH sent on Ethereum, Arbitrum or Base still reaches you, just under that network rather than Aurora. That's safe, but it won't pay Aurora gas until it's bridged.

Getting ETH onto Aurora#

Keylo can't bridge to Aurora, so you'll do this step with a wallet that connects, such as MetaMask using the same phrase. On the Rainbow Bridge, choose Ethereum as the source and Aurora as the destination. Aurora's bridge docs say transfers from Ethereum usually take up to 20 minutes. ERC-20 tokens need an approval first, then the transfer.

From NEAR, the same bridge moves tokens to Aurora almost instantly. NEAR itself arrives wrapped, and Keylo lists it as WNEAR.

How to send ETH on Aurora#

1. Tap Send and pick ETH or a token you hold on Aurora.

2. Paste or scan a 0x address in To. Keylo won't accept a NEAR account name here.

3. Enter an amount or tap Max, which keeps back enough ETH for the fee.

4. Tap Review and choose Slow, Normal or Fast.

5. Check the network, the full address with its first and last six characters in bold, and the fee in ETH.

6. Tap Send. Keylo signs on your device, moves from "On its way" to "Sent", and offers View on Aurorascan, which now opens Aurora Explorer.

What Keylo checks before you sign#

Keylo simulates every Aurora transfer first, so one that would fail stops on the review screen at no cost. It also warns about these:

• No ETH on Aurora. Moving USDC without gas shows "You need some ETH on Aurora to pay the network fee."

• A contract as recipient. Tokens sent to a contract that doesn't expect them are usually lost, so Keylo asks you to make sure.

• The token's own contract. Keylo blocks this paste error.

• A NEAR, Bitcoin or Solana address. It isn't a valid 0x address, so Keylo refuses it.

If a transfer ever stays pending, tap Speed up on the done screen to resend it with a higher fee.

Aurora gas fees explained#

Aurora's gas price doesn't move. Its docs call the gas cost constant, quote 0.07 gwei, and the network's RPC returned exactly that on October 24, 2026. There's no base fee and no tip auction, so a busy hour costs the same as a quiet one.

Because the price is fixed, Slow, Normal and Fast in Keylo differ only in how far above 0.07 gwei they bid. Slow already meets the fixed price, so it's the sensible choice here. Keylo adds nothing to a normal send.

Behind the scenes, the relayer pays the real cost in NEAR. Aurora's docs describe a typical transaction as costing about $0.02 in practice. In a 1,000-block sample on October 24, 2026, blocks arrived every 0.57 seconds on average, in step with NEAR.

What Keylo doesn't do on Aurora#

• No bridge or swap. Keylo's swap provider doesn't route Aurora. Use the Rainbow Bridge, Aurora+ or a DEX through a wallet that connects.

• No dapp connections. There's no browser extension and no WalletConnect, so Aurora+, lending apps and NFT sites can't see Keylo.

• No staking. Aurora points stakers to Aurora+, its own app. Keylo stakes only on Cosmos SDK chains.

• No NFT transfers, testnet, hardware wallets or card purchases. NFTs at your address show up read-only under Collectibles on the Aurora page.

Keylo never holds your keys. If you lose both your password and your recovery phrase, nobody can restore the wallet, Keylo included. The complete network list shows where else your phrase works.

Aurora scams and mistakes to avoid#

• Fake bridge sites. Bridge lookalikes ask you to connect and approve a token, then drain it. Type rainbowbridge.app yourself rather than clicking ads or replies.

• Wrong-network ETH. Withdrawing ETH on Ethereum to your 0x address works, but it lands on Ethereum. It won't pay Aurora gas until you bridge it.

• Confusing the USDCs. Several contracts share the USDC name, and an exchange or app may accept only one. Check the contract before you send.

• Address poisoning. Scammers send dust from addresses that copy the start and end of ones you use. Paste addresses from the original source.

• Fake support. Keylo staff never ask for your phrase or password. Reach them through Keylo support, and read Keylo's security overview.

Before the first real transfer from your Aurora wallet:

1. Your recovery phrase is on paper and confirmed in Keylo.

2. You hold a little ETH on Aurora, not only on Ethereum.

3. Any token you rely on matches the contract list above.

4. Withdrawals to Ethereum are planned around the 16-hour wait.

5. A small test transfer arrived first.

Your phrase also covers NEAR itself. The NEAR wallet guide explains NEAR accounts, and the Ethereum wallet guide covers ETH on mainnet.

Aurora wallet FAQ#