How settlement works
Follow QTC and USDC through every step of a trade.
A trade, step by step
IllustrationMatch
Choose an offer and agree on the amount. The price and both payment addresses are fixed for this trade.
Minimum fill 1 QTCLock
The platform moves the seller’s QTC into its public escrow wallet. The buyer pays only after the lock is confirmed on Quantus.
Locked after 6 Quantus confirmationsPay
The buyer sends USDC straight to the seller on Arbitrum. The QTC stays locked; the platform never holds the USDC.
90 minutes to pay · 12 Arbitrum confirmationsRelease
Payment confirmed. The platform releases QTC to the buyer, minus the fee. If the buyer never pays, QTC returns to the seller.
2% fee, taken in QTC at release
Fees, timeouts and confirmation counts on this page are read from the running platform configuration.
How does a trade run, step by step?
Match: a taker accepts an offer for an amount. Both parties’ Arbitrum addresses are recorded at that moment and do not change for the rest of the trade.
Lock: automatic. The platform moves the QTC from the seller’s wallet into the escrow wallet and waits for 6 Quantus confirmations.
Pay: the buyer sends the exact USDC total from their registered Arbitrum address to the seller’s. The transfer is accepted after 12 confirmations.
Release: the escrow wallet sends the QTC, minus the fee, to the buyer’s wallet.
How many confirmations are required?
6 blocks on Quantus before a deposit or a lock counts (about 1 minute at the 12-second target block time), and 12 blocks on Arbitrum One before a USDC payment is accepted.
A payment transaction hash you submit in the trade room is only a hint that speeds up detection. Verification always reads the chain.
Is the USDC escrowed too?
No. USDC goes straight from the buyer’s Arbitrum address to the seller’s. The buyer is shown payment instructions only after the seller’s QTC has been confirmed in the escrow wallet.
What if I send the wrong amount, or pay from another address?
The watcher only accepts a USDC transfer of exactly the total, from the buyer’s registered address to the seller’s registered address, on Arbitrum One. Anything else — less, more, another sender such as an exchange withdrawal, another network — does not move the trade forward.
Such transfers are shown in the trade room as payment issues. Nothing is reversed automatically, because the USDC is already in the seller’s wallet; settle it with the counterparty or open a dispute.
How can I verify a trade myself?
The trade room links the lock, the USDC payment and the release to the Quantus and Arbitrum explorers. The escrow wallet is one public address, so its balance and every move in or out can be followed. Completed public trades are listed on the Settlements page with the same links.
What the chain cannot show you is who may sign: the escrow wallet and the user wallets are ordinary accounts, and the rules for moving them are enforced by the platform’s software.