Arche Documentation
Everything you need to understand how Arche works, from the arUSD token to the strategies that generate yield.
Overview
Arche is a yield infrastructure protocol built on Ethereum. At its core is arUSD — a yield-bearing stablecoin fully backed by USDC. When you deposit USDC into the Arche vault, you receive arUSD, a composable ERC-4626 token that appreciates in value as the underlying strategies generate returns.
The protocol is designed around a single principle: maximize risk-adjusted yield on stablecoins without sacrificing liquidity or transparency. There are no lock-ups, no withdrawal delays, and no hidden mechanics. Every contract is on-chain and verifiable.
Team
Arche is built by a small team focused on practical DeFi yield, transparent vault infrastructure, and clear communication with users.
Archie started as a DeFi farmer before becoming a first-time builder. He leads Arche's product direction, strategy research, partnerships, and business development.
Mati is a Web3 growth and marketing operator based in Argentina. He has experience across BNB Chain growth, ecosystem events, community building, brand marketing, and go-to-market strategy. At Arche, he leads growth, partnerships, and community expansion.
Ariel advises Arche on ecosystem positioning, user feedback, and community context. He helps the team stay close to how DeFi users evaluate new products, risk, and yield opportunities.
Timmy manages Arche's social presence and day-to-day community communication. He helps keep updates clear, consistent, and visible across social channels.
arUSD
arUSD is the receipt token you receive when depositing USDC into the Arche vault. It follows the ERC-4626tokenized vault standard, meaning it's composable with any DeFi protocol that supports the standard.
How the price works
arUSD uses a price-per-share model. As the vault's strategies generate yield, the total assets in the vault increase while the arUSD supply stays constant. This means each arUSD becomes redeemable for more USDC over time. You don't need to claim or harvest — yield is reflected automatically in the token price.
Minting & redeeming
Deposit USDC → receive arUSD. The amount of arUSD you receive is determined by the current price-per-share. When you withdraw, your arUSD is burned and you receive the equivalent USDC based on the current share price. Withdrawals are instant and permissionless.
Bridge
Arche uses LayerZero OFT infrastructure to bridge arUSD between Ethereum and Arbitrum. Ethereum remains the source of truth for minting, redemption, and vault accounting. Arbitrum holds a bridged representation of arUSD that is backed by arUSD locked in the Ethereum adapter.
How it works
Bridge security settings
- DVN set: LayerZero Labs, Nethermind, and Google
- Verification threshold: 2 of 3 DVNs
- Daily rate limit: 250,000 arUSD per direction
- Ethereum to Arbitrum confirmations: 32
- Arbitrum to Ethereum confirmations: 20
Bridge contracts
The Arche Engine
The Arche Engine is the allocation layer that routes capital across multiple yield strategies. It determines where funds are deployed based on risk-adjusted return, liquidity depth, and protocol health.
The engine operates through a strategy queue — an ordered list of approved strategies that the vault allocates to. Each strategy is independently audited, has defined risk parameters, and can be added or removed through governance.
Capital allocation is not static. The engine continuously evaluates market conditions and rebalances across strategies to optimize returns while maintaining instant withdrawal liquidity for depositors.
Strategies
Arche deploys capital across four categories of yield strategies, each serving a different risk-return profile:
DeFi lending
Supplying stablecoins to battle-tested lending protocols to earn borrow interest. These form the base yield layer — lower returns but deep liquidity and proven track records.
Delta-neutral strategies
Market-neutral positions that capture funding rates and basis spreads without directional exposure. These strategies profit from the structural premium that perpetual futures markets pay to long positions, while hedging away price risk entirely.
Market making
Providing liquidity across on-chain venues and earning the bid-ask spread. Positions are actively managed to minimize inventory risk and impermanent loss while capturing consistent trading fees.
Options strategies
Systematic options selling strategies that harvest volatility premium. These typically involve writing covered calls or cash-secured puts on major assets, collecting premium while maintaining defined risk boundaries.
Strategy allocation and weights are managed by the Arche Engine and can change based on market conditions. Not all strategies may be active at any given time. Check the vault's on-chain state for the current allocation queue.
Architecture
The Arche protocol consists of a minimal set of smart contracts, each with a clearly defined role:
Vault (arUSD)
The core ERC-4626 vault that accepts USDC deposits, mints arUSD, and processes withdrawals. Built on Yearn v3 MultiStrategy infrastructure (API version 3.0.4), which has been battle-tested across billions of dollars in DeFi.
Strategy layer
Individual strategy contracts that deploy capital to specific yield sources. Each strategy is a separate contract in the vault's allocation queue, allowing modular upgrades — new strategies can be added and old ones retired without touching the vault itself.
Bridge layer
The LayerZero bridge is separate from vault accounting. Bridging to Arbitrum does not mint new Ethereum arUSD or move vault assets out of the vault. It locks arUSD in the Ethereum adapter and issues the corresponding OFT representation on Arbitrum.
Accountant
The HealthCheckAccountant validates strategy reports and enforces fee parameters. Currently configured with 0% management and 0% performance fees. Any fee changes require Guardian approval and are visible on-chain before they take effect.
Yield flow
Contracts
Core vault contracts are deployed on Ethereum mainnet. The bridge uses one Ethereum adapter and one Arbitrum OFT contract. Click any address to view the contract source and on-chain state.
Guardian
What the Guardian controls
- Adding or removing strategies from the vault queue
- Setting strategy debt limits and allocation weights
- Modifying fee parameters on the accountant
- Emergency shutdown (pauses deposits, not withdrawals)
- Role assignment and access control
What the Guardian cannot do
- Block or delay withdrawals — withdrawals are always permissionless
- Access depositor funds directly — funds are in the vault and strategies
- Upgrade the vault contract — the vault is immutable once deployed
Timelock
Arche uses an OpenZeppelin TimelockController for staged protocol admin actions. The timelock is deployed on Ethereum mainnet with a 2-day minimum delay, verified on-chain through getMinDelay().
Actions routed through the timelock are queued first, wait for the delay window, and can only be executed after the delay has passed. This gives depositors time to review material protocol changes before they take effect.
Timelocked actions
Examples of material changes routed through the timelock include:
- Adding or removing strategies from the vault queue
- Changing strategy debt limits and allocation parameters
- Changing vault or accountant fee parameters
- Updating timelock roles or configuration
Not delayed
- User deposits and withdrawals
- Reading vault data, analytics, and points
- Claiming external incentives from partner platforms
Season 1 Points
Arche Season 1 is a points program that rewards early depositors. Points accrue hourly based on how much arUSD you hold and how long you've been in the vault. At the end of Season 1, points determine your share of accumulated protocol fees and a reserved allocation of any future ARCHE token.
Season timeline
How points are earned
Every hour, each wallet with a positive arUSD balance earns points using this formula:
points = (balance_usd / 24) × tier_multiplierTier multipliers
The longer you stay in the vault, the faster you earn. Your tier is based on your consecutive days holding arUSD:
Streak rules
Your streak (and tier) tracks consecutive days where every hourly snapshot shows a positive arUSD balance. If your balance drops to zero at any hourly check, your streak resets to zero and you start back at Tier 1. Partial withdrawals that leave arUSD in your wallet do not break the streak.
What points unlock
- Protocol fee share — all performance and management fees collected by the vault during Season 1 accrue into a pool and are distributed pro-rata to points holders at season end (2026-10-12). No mid-season payouts; accrual is continuous.
- Reserved token allocation — 15% of any future ARCHE token genesis supply is reserved pro-rata for Season 1 points holders. This is conditional: Arche has not committed to launching a token. If and when a governance token is issued, the reserved allocation becomes claimable.
At season end, a final snapshot is written to the Netlify Blob store and published on-chain by the Guardian as a Merkle root. From that root, any S1 points holder can claim their share of the fee pool. The same snapshot becomes the reference for token-reserve distribution if a token launches later.
You can track your current rank, points balance, and tier on the Points page inside the app.
Security
Arche is built on top of infrastructure that has been independently audited and collectively secures billions in value across DeFi.
Security review
Even though Yearn v3 has been independently audited by multiple firms, the Arche team commissioned additional security reviews to make sure everything was up to date and correctly configured for the Arche protocol.
The latest review was conducted by Sherlock from May 6 – May 9, 2026. The final report found no critical, high, or medium severity issues, and listed two low/informational findings.
Arche was also reviewed by Kann Audits (Kann, Lyubo, Sang) from 28 April – 30 May 2026. No critical, high, medium, or low severity issues were identified.
- Sherlock collaborative audit report (PDF) — May 11, 2026
- Arche security review (PDF) — May 3, 2026
Audit status
Arche is built on Yearn v3 MultiStrategy vault architecture (apiVersion 3.0.4). The core v3 vault design has been independently audited by three firms:
- ChainSecurity — audited v3.0.0
- Statemind — audited v3.0.0
- yAudit — audited v3.0.1
Risk factors
FAQ
Not investment advice. DeFi yield involves smart-contract risk across every layer. Do your own research.