How it works
Arcdesk is a non-custodial OTC desk for moving USDC from Base to the Arc Network. The desk never holds your funds: every step lives in an escrow contract with a timeout you can always reclaim from yourself.
A trade, step by step
- 1The maker commits first Your USDC is reserved from a maker's offer on Arc, addressed to you, before you pay a cent. The reservation is locked for at least 90 minutes.
- 2You pay once, on Base One payment covering the maker's price plus the 2% desk fee, escrowed under a hashlock. This is the only transaction you ever send, and it can be locked for at most 30 minutes.
- 3The maker takes the payment Claiming it reveals a secret on-chain. That same secret is the only key that opens your reservation on Arc.
- 4Your USDC is delivered on Arc With the secret public, anyone can trigger the delivery — the desk does it for you. You never need Arc gas, which matters because Arc's gas token IS USDC.
What if something stalls?
If the maker never claims your payment, it unlocks after the deadline and the Refund button on your Orders page returns it — a permissionless contract call from your own wallet that nobody, including us, can switch off. If the maker takes the payment, the secret is public and the delivery on Arc stays claimable long after — the contract forces reservations to outlive payments by at least an hour.
Why premiums exist
Arc is a closed mainnet: the official bridges are not open, so USDC already inside the network trades above face value. Makers price that scarcity; the premium is theirs, the 2% fee is the desk's. When Circle opens the bridge, premiums die — this is a market for exactly as long as the door stays shut.
Contracts (mainnet)
| Leg | Chain | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Base (8453) | 0x663b1167456Ae4B52f3b226206B28cBc309c0a3a |
| Liquidity | Arc (5042) | 0x9f06B98B19EeB1bA17d8602D28e39a7350a8091b |
Mainnet. Contracts are unaudited — do not point this at real funds. Both legs run the same bytecode, and every refund path is permissionless.