Cross-Chain Swap (XCS)

Estimated time to read: 2 minutes

The Arcana chain abstraction protocol has evolved to a cross-chain swap enabled unified balance.

Basic Unified Balance

Users could combine the same token type (for example, USDT) held across multiple source chains into a single, unified balance.
This allowed spending that token on any destination chain.
Limitation: Users could only use the unified balance of a single token type. If they lacked enough of that token on all the source chains combined, or had no liquidity on the destination chain, they could not complete the transaction.

Unified Balance with Cross-Chain Swap (XCS)

The new improved unified balance approach allows cross-chain swaps.
Users can now spend any supported token (for example, USDT, USDC) from any supported source chain to pay on any destination chain.
The protocol automatically combines multiple token types and sources to fulfill the transaction, even if the user lacks sufficient balance in a single token or on the destination chain.
This significantly increases the available liquidity and flexibility, enabling larger transactions and covers gas fee.
This advanced feature requires chains and tokens to support permit/EIP-2612.
The chain abstraction protocol falls back to the basic unified balance if the chains and tokens do not support permit/EIP-2612.

Example

Consider a wallet balance:

With no unified balance or chain abstraction, user cannot spend any USDT on Scroll unless they use a bridge to convert tokens.

With basic unified balance and chain abstracted transaction, user can spend 18 USDT on Scroll.

XCS feature lets user spend 18 USDC on Scroll which is not possible with basic unified balance.

Intent	No Unified Balance / CA	Unified Balance	Unified Balance + XCS
Spend 18 USDT on Scroll	❌	✅	✅
Spend 18 USDC on Scroll	❌	❌	✅

Last update: July 24, 2025 by shalz