The Bridge Flow
Arrow DEX moves USDC across Arc Testnet, Ethereum Sepolia, and Base Sepolia using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol — a native burn-and-mint mechanism. There is no wrapped or synthetic USDC at any point in this flow.
Approve
Your wallet authorizes Circle's TokenMessenger contract to spend the USDC amount you're bridging. This is a standard ERC-20 approval, scoped to the exact amount you specify.
Burn
A depositForBurn transaction destroys that USDC on the source chain and records the destination domain and recipient address on-chain.
Attestation
Circle's Iris API observes the burn and, once finalized, produces a signed attestation. Arrow DEX polls this automatically — no manual step required from you.
Mint
The attestation is submitted to the destination chain's MessageTransmitter contract, which mints the equivalent amount of native USDC directly to your wallet.
Most cross-chain bridges lock an asset on the source chain and mint a wrapped representation on the destination — introducing custody risk and a synthetic token that can de-peg from the original. CCTP instead burns the real USDC and mints real, native USDC on arrival. Your balance on the destination chain is not a claim on a bridge contract — it is USDC, issued by Circle, exactly as if you’d acquired it there directly.
Ready to bridge?
Get free testnet USDC and gas from faucet.circle.com, then connect your wallet to move funds across any of the three supported networks.