How it works

Unstable is an over-the-counter desk for moving USDC between Ethereum and Arc without waiting on a bridge. Makers park USDC on the chain you want it on and name their price; you pay on the other chain and the desk settles both legs. Every cent sits in an audited escrow contract until it's either delivered or refunded — the desk never holds your money.

The three parties

• Makers lock USDC in the liquidity escrow at a premium they choose (0% to 10,000%). They earn that premium on every fill and can cancel unreserved liquidity anytime.
• Takers pick an offer and escrow their payment (maker's proceeds + 3% fee) on the other chain. Delivery is typically under a minute.
• The desk (keeper) is an automated settlement agent. It can only move escrowed funds along the committed path — maker gets proceeds, you get the USDC, fee wallet gets the fee. It cannot redirect anything to itself.

The two markets

Life of a fill

1. You approve the exact quoted amount of USDC and escrow it with fillOffer.
2. The desk reserves your USDC inside the maker's offer on the destination chain.
3. The desk settles your payment: maker proceeds and service fee are released.
4. The desk claims the reservation — the USDC lands at your recipient address.

If the chain of events stops anywhere before settlement, your payment is still yours: the desk fail-closes by refunding you, and even if the desk is completely dead you can refund yourself after the timeout — see the refund guarantee.

What you trust, exactly

Not the desk with custody — it has none. You rely on the escrow contracts (audited, verified, bytecode-matched on-chain) and, for timely delivery, on the desk being awake. If it isn't, the worst case is waiting out the refund timeout and reclaiming every cent yourself.