How to Buy Bitcoin With USDC on a Schedule

Why buy Bitcoin from USDC

A schedule only works if the money is already somewhere the plan can spend it. USDC is a dollar-pegged stablecoin with large liquidity, it enables CoinOperated to swap for Bitcoin onchain without passing through a custodian.

On CoinOperated your USDC sits in a non-custodial passkey wallet you own, not in an exchange account. If you already hold USDC, you can deposit it and set up a plan without KYC. If you are starting from dollars in a bank or on a card, Circle Onramp converts them to USDC on Arc.

Set up the plan

1. Fund USDC on Arc

   1. Adding USDC with onramp or transfer

      Open a plan and create the wallet if you do not have one yet. Add USDC with Circle Onramp, or transfer USDC you already hold to the Arc address the wallet shows you. Onramp deposits to Arc are 0-fee. The USDC has to be on Arc. A balance on another network is not what the plan spends.

   2. Setting up recurring ACH deposits

      In Circle Onramp you can link a bank account and schedule recurring ACH deposits so USDC arrives on Arc before each buy.

2. Pick an amount and a frequency

   Choose Bitcoin, Ethereum, both, or PAXG. Amounts start at $5 and move in $5 steps. Cadence can be hourly, twice a day, once a day, weekly, every two weeks, or monthly. A $10 buy is a comfortable starting size, not the minimum.

3. Choose where the coins go

   Leave the destination as the wallet CoinOperated creates for you, or paste another address you control, such as a hardware wallet. Bitcoin and Ethereum arrive on their own networks. Check the address before you sign. A payment to the wrong address cannot be reversed.

   

What it costs

Circle Onramp deposits of USDC onto Arc are 0-fee. Each buy has four costs. Gas to process the automated transaction is roughly flat, about 1 to 5 cents, depending on how busy the networks are. LI.FI charges a flat 0.25% (25 basis points). CoinOperated charges a flat 0.25% (25 basis points). Bridge fees cover gas on the destination network.

Each purchase is a swap quoted by LI.FI. An Ethereum buy is one hop from Arc USDC to ETH. A Bitcoin buy is two: Arc USDC to USDC on Base, then Base USDC to BTC. Bridge fees in that quote pay gas on the destination network. A quote can move between the time you look at it and the time the swap lands, and a very small buy can be a poor deal once the 0.25% fees and gas are included. The $5 floor is the smallest plan the app will start, not a promise that every $5 swap is cheap.

Send the coins to a wallet you control

After you sign, the permission is what lets the plan run without you sitting at the keyboard. There is no seed phrase. The passkey unlocks the wallet. CoinOperated stores the permission and the plan, not a private key.

Bitcoin shows up as BTC on Bitcoin. Ethereum shows up as ETH on Ethereum. You can move either balance out whenever you want. The same setup works if you pointed the plan at a cold wallet from the start.

The diagrams for the permission and the route are on How it works.

Questions