Extended, a decentralized exchange focused on perpetual contracts, has completed its full migration to Arc, Circle's Layer 1 blockchain. Trading is now live on the new network, with USDC and cirBTC accepted as collateral.

How the migration unfolded

The move took place on October 22, 2026, at 13:00 UTC. Extended shifted its settlement infrastructure from Starknet, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, to Arc, bringing approximately $120 million in total value locked (TVL) along with it.

Open positions and orders transferred intact, meaning traders did not need to close out and rebuild their books on the other side. Deposits and withdrawals were briefly paused during the transition; both have since been restored.

The collateral lineup changed, however. On Arc, Extended now accepts native USDC as its primary collateral asset and cirBTC as its Bitcoin collateral. cirBTC is a token issued by Circle and backed 1:1 by Bitcoin.

Two familiar assets did not carry over. USDT and wBTC are not supported on Arc. Users holding more than1 of either asset were required to act by October 21, 2026, choosing to either withdraw or convert their holdings into USDC or cirBTC at a 1:1 rate plus a 0.50% premium. ETH holders faced a simpler process: their balances converted automatically to wETH during the migration.

What Arc offers

Arc is Circle's EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, which launched its mainnet on September 16, 2026. Extended's arrival came roughly five weeks later.

The network provides sub-second deterministic finality, meaning transactions reach an irreversible state quickly and predictably, and gas fees on Arc are paid in USDC — a design that lets traders cover network costs in the same dollar asset they post as margin, with no separate fee token to acquire. Its founding validator lineup includes BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Visa, and Mastercard, placing names from asset management, post-trade market infrastructure, exchange operation, and card payments at the network's core.

Extended also gains access to Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which allows USDC to move natively between blockchains rather than relying on wrapped versions issued by third-party bridges.

Partnership and track record

The migration is described as the first step in a broader partnership between Extended and Circle. Extended reports more than $200 billion in lifetime trading volume across multiple asset classes, including traditional stocks and digital currencies.

What it means for traders

For existing Extended users, the immediate changes are practical: collateral options have narrowed to USDC and cirBTC, and anyone still holding USDT or wBTC had to decide before the October 21 deadline, with the 0.50% conversion premium offering an incentive to convert rather than withdraw. Exchanges rarely pay users to switch assets.

The setup also concentrates Extended's collateral within Circle's issuance stack — USDC serving as both the gas asset and the primary margin asset, with cirBTC likewise Circle-issued — a structure worth noting as the partnership develops. Key metrics to watch from here include whether TVL grows beyond the approximately $120 million that made the trip, how cirBTC adoption develops as Bitcoin collateral, and what the next phase of the Extended and Circle partnership delivers.