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Extended Arc Migration: Settlement Moves From Starknet to Circle’s Arc

Extended Arc Migration: Settlement Moves From Starknet to Circle’s Arc

by | Oct 22, 2026 | Innovation Circle

Extended, a decentralized perpetuals exchange, began moving its settlement layer from Starknet to Arc, the Layer 1 blockchain developed by Circle, on October 22, 2026. The Extended Arc migration started at 13:00 UTC, according to Crypto Briefing.

The shift matters because the platform carries roughly $117.7 million in total value locked, the bulk of it sitting on Starknet, and the exchange says trading will run without interruption throughout the move. For Arc, whose mainnet went live only weeks earlier, landing an established derivatives venue is an early test of its capacity to host high-throughput financial applications.

The migration relocates the infrastructure that settles trades on the exchange while leaving the trading experience itself intact, according to the report. That combination of a live order book and a changing settlement layer is what makes the October 22 switch notable for both the platform's users and its new host chain.

How the Extended Arc migration works

Extended says trading will keep running through the switch, with no interruption to the order book. Deposits and withdrawals, however, will pause for up to two hours while the Extended Arc migration takes place, Crypto Briefing reported.

The exchange expects the majority of participants to come through the migration with balances intact and positions untouched. For most users, no action is required: balances unaffected by the asset changes are set to be shifted into wETH on a one-for-one basis automatically, and holders do not need to complete any paperwork for that to happen.

The near-term to-do list for users is short but non-negotiable, according to the report. Anyone planning to move funds on or off the platform should plan around the two-hour deposit and withdrawal pause that began at 13:00 UTC on October 22, since transfers in either direction will not be processed during that window.

Once the pause lifts, the migration is designed to leave the typical trader in the same position as before, with the settlement layer underneath changed. The exchange's expectation is that most accounts will carry their balances and open positions across the transition without disruption, according to Crypto Briefing.

Deadline for USDT and wBTC holders

USDT and wBTC will not be supported on Arc, which creates a hard deadline for holders of either asset. Users holding USDT or wBTC had until October 21, 2026, the day before the migration, to act.

Those users were given two paths. They could swap their USDT for USDC and their wBTC for cirBTC on a one-for-one basis, or they could pull the assets off the platform entirely. The conversion terms also include a 0.50% premium.

Traders holding meaningful USDT or wBTC balances were advised to check exactly how that premium applies to their holdings before the cutoff, according to Crypto Briefing. The cost of converting could vary depending on the size of the balance, making the calculation worth doing ahead of the deadline rather than after.

The cutoff date of October 21 was set one day ahead of the migration itself, giving the exchange a clean break between the asset transition and the settlement switch. Users who missed that window faced the consequences of holding assets that the new chain does not recognize.

Why Extended chose Circle's Arc

According to the exchange, the goals behind the move center on quicker performance, delivered through finality of less than a second, and on transaction fees denominated in stablecoins. Extended has also presented the migration as a route to deeper ties with institutional investors, and the predictability of those fees is part of what it believes will appeal to that audience.

Arc is Circle's own blockchain. The network's mainnet went live on September 16, 2026, and the group of founding validators named at launch includes BlackRock and Visa, according to Crypto Briefing.

The asset changes align the exchange with its new host chain. Because USDC is the flagship stablecoin issued by Circle, moving stablecoin balances out of USDT and into USDC fits Arc's native ecosystem. By settling on a network operated by one stablecoin issuer, where USDC serves as the standard dollar asset, Extended ends up more tightly bound to Circle's ecosystem than it was on Starknet.

That closer relationship cuts both ways. The exchange gains the performance and fee structure it says it wants, but it also places its settlement infrastructure within an ecosystem defined by a single issuer's product, a degree of alignment it did not have before the move.

What the move means for Arc

For Arc, securing an established perpetuals exchange only weeks after its mainnet debut amounts to a helpful early indicator of traction. A derivatives platform arriving with roughly $117.7 million in total value locked hands the young network a functioning, high-throughput use case it can point to as evidence of demand.

For Extended, the operational challenge is substantial. Relocating a nine-figure pool between settlement layers while the order book stays live amounts to a meaningful test of the exchange's infrastructure and of Arc's readiness to support it.

The outcome will be watched as a measure of whether a chain backed by a major stablecoin issuer, and validated at launch by firms such as BlackRock and Visa, can absorb real derivatives flow without incident. A smooth transition would give Arc a working reference case; any disruption would fall on an exchange whose users were told their positions would be untouched.

Conclusion

The Extended Arc migration began on October 22, 2026, at 13:00 UTC, moving settlement off Starknet while keeping trading live and pausing deposits and withdrawals for up to two hours. The exchange brings roughly $117.7 million in total value locked to a chain whose mainnet launched on September 16 with BlackRock and Visa among its founding validators. The immediate next step for users holding USDT or wBTC was to convert or withdraw by the October 21 deadline, since neither asset is supported on Arc.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Extended migrate from Starknet to Arc?

The migration began on October 22, 2026, at 13:00 UTC. Extended said trading would run without interruption, though deposits and withdrawals paused for up to two hours during the move.

What happens to USDT and wBTC on Extended after the Arc migration?

USDT and wBTC are not supported on Arc. Holders had until October 21, 2026, to swap USDT for USDC and wBTC for cirBTC on a one-for-one basis, with a 0.50% premium, or to withdraw the assets from the platform.

How much total value locked does Extended bring to Arc?

Extended carries roughly $117.7 million in total value locked, with the bulk of it previously sitting on Starknet. The migration gives Arc a working, high-throughput derivatives use case within weeks of its mainnet debut.

What is Circle's Arc blockchain?

Arc is a Layer 1 blockchain developed by Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. The network's mainnet went live on September 16, 2026, and BlackRock and Visa were named among its founding validators.

Why is Extended moving its settlement layer to Arc?

Extended cites faster performance through sub-second finality and stablecoin-denominated transaction fees. It has also framed the move as a way to build deeper connections with institutional investors, drawn in part by predictable fees.

Sources

Starknet ShapeShift Integration Cuts Bridge Step From Cross-Chain Swaps

Starknet ShapeShift Integration Cuts Bridge Step From Cross-Chain Swaps

by | Oct 17, 2026 | DeFi

ShapeShift has integrated Starknet, allowing users of the multichain swap aggregator to trade assets on the Ethereum Layer 2 network in a single transaction without a separate bridging step. ShapeShift announced the integration on October 16, 2026, and Starknet amplified the news a day later, describing the network as now available on the platform, according to Crypto Briefing.

The change matters because moving value into or out of Starknet through a typical route previously required two distinct actions: bridging assets first, then executing a swap. The Starknet ShapeShift integration collapses that into one trade, reducing the steps and overhead involved in accessing the network. For a Layer 2 competing for users, that kind of friction reduction is a practical gain rather than a cosmetic one.

How the Starknet ShapeShift integration works

ShapeShift operates as a community-led multichain swap aggregator. Rather than holding all liquidity itself, an aggregator searches across sources to find a route for a trade. With the new integration, that routing now extends to Starknet, so a user can complete a trade in one swap with no bridge step, Crypto Briefing reported.

Getting the network live on the platform required changes on ShapeShift's side. The company adjusted its technical configurations so its systems could support the new network, according to Crypto Briefing. ShapeShift already supports multiple chains and has recently leaned further into interoperability, so Starknet slots into an existing multichain framework rather than a new one built from scratch.

ShapeShift did not disclose which tokens or trading pairs are part of the launch, and it provided no volume or usage figures alongside the announcement. That leaves the scope of day-one support unclear, even though the core mechanism, a single swap replacing a bridge-plus-swap sequence, is confirmed. The absence of named pairs also means traders cannot yet tell from the announcement alone how deep the initial coverage runs.

Why one-swap access matters for Starknet

Starknet operates as a scaling layer for Ethereum and is built on zk-STARK technology, according to Crypto Briefing. Networks of this type handle transactions away from Ethereum's main chain and then settle them back to it, an approach aimed at cutting costs and increasing throughput for users.

The network has framed its development around three goals: scalability, privacy, and interoperability. Of those, the ShapeShift deal speaks most directly to interoperability, Crypto Briefing reported. Ease of moving funds in and out is one of the axes on which Layer 2 networks compete, and connecting to an established multichain aggregator exposes Starknet to users who might never have sought it out on their own.

For existing ShapeShift users, the effect is simple: Starknet now appears alongside the other chains the platform already supports, as one more destination rather than a separate system requiring extra steps. Because each trade no longer carries the overhead of a bridge transaction, the change could make smaller and more frequent transactions more practical, Crypto Briefing reported. ShapeShift's platform could also see higher trading volume as a result, while Starknet stands to gain in user engagement.

Developer widget could extend the reach

A month before the Starknet announcement, in September 2026, ShapeShift made its swap stack available to developers as a free widget and API. That decision matters for this integration because any chain ShapeShift adds can potentially reach users well beyond ShapeShift's own interface if outside developers build the tooling into their own applications.

That dynamic gives the Starknet ShapeShift integration a second potential distribution channel. Whether developers actually take it up remains to be demonstrated in live products, but the pathway is now open in a way it was not before the September release. The combination of a multichain front end and an embeddable swap stack means a single chain addition can propagate across many interfaces at once.

What to watch next

For traders and investors watching Starknet, the practical signals to monitor are straightforward, according to Crypto Briefing. One is whether Starknet swaps begin appearing inside third-party products built on ShapeShift's free widget and API, which would be the clearest sign the integration is spreading beyond a single front end.

The other open question is which assets and pairs attract real use once the initial novelty fades. Because the announcement left those specifics out, the more useful story will come from how trading actually behaves over the coming weeks, Crypto Briefing reported.

Conclusion

ShapeShift's integration of Starknet, announced on October 16, 2026, lets users trade the Layer 2 network's assets in a single swap without a separate bridging step. The move aligns with Starknet's interoperability priority and puts the network in front of ShapeShift's existing multichain user base. The next concrete signals to watch are whether developers using ShapeShift's free widget and API surface Starknet swaps in their own products, and which assets and pairs attract real trading volume in the coming weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did ShapeShift announce about Starknet on October 16, 2026?

ShapeShift announced that it had integrated Starknet, letting users of its multichain swap aggregator trade Starknet assets in a single swap with no separate bridging step. A day later, on October 17, 2026, Starknet amplified the announcement and described the network as now available on the platform, according to Crypto Briefing.

How did users move value into Starknet before the ShapeShift integration?

Previously, a typical route into or out of Starknet involved two distinct actions: users had to bridge assets first and then execute a swap. ShapeShift now handles the process as a single trade, according to Crypto Briefing.

What is Starknet?

Starknet is a Layer 2 network built to scale Ethereum, using zk-STARK technology. Networks of this kind handle transactions away from Ethereum's main chain and settle them back to it, aiming for lower costs and higher throughput. Starknet has positioned itself around scalability, privacy, and interoperability.

Which tokens and trading pairs are included in the Starknet ShapeShift launch?

The announcement did not name specific tokens or trading pairs included in the launch, and it did not include any volume or usage figures, according to Crypto Briefing. Actual trading behavior over the coming weeks will show which assets and pairs see real use.

How could ShapeShift's developer widget affect Starknet's reach?

In September 2026, ShapeShift released its swap stack as a free widget and API for developers. If developers embed that tooling in their own apps, Starknet swaps could potentially travel further than ShapeShift's own interface, according to Crypto Briefing.

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