POTENTIAL CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST ALTO TRUST CO., ALTO SOLUTIONS, INC., DBA “ALTOIRA,” PUBLIC HOLDINGS, INC., OPEN TO THE PUBLIC INVESTING, INC., PUBLIC PLATFORM LLC, AND ZERO HASH LLC
I’ve been an Alto Crypto Roth IRA account holder since 2021.
As you probably know by now, Alto and Public have unilaterally decided on behalf of all Alto Crypto Roth IRA account holders that they are going to migrate our assets to some platform called “Zero Hash” that doesn’t support the vast majority of crypto tokens that were available on Coinbase. This unfortunately includes ALL of the tokens I own in my Alto account.
So, because Zero Hash doesn’t support them, Alto and Public have, again unilaterally and without account holders’ input or consent, decided to force us to make a lose-lose decision with our retirement savings:
1. Either we “opt out” of their forced migration by liquidating our investment assets at bear market low prices by April 22, 2026, or
2. Alto will confiscate our personal property and market sell all “unsupported tokens” on April 23, 2026. “Unsupported” in my case means ALL my tokens.
Evidently, Alto and Public believe they have some contractual right to deprive Crypto Roth IRA account holders of our property rights and to liquidate our retirement investment assets in the midst of a bear market, forcing the realization of potentially severe capital losses… for which we can’t even take a tax loss write-off under IRS rules governing Roth IRAs.
The authority Alto believes they have
for this imminent market dump travesty is found in the Terms of Service,
Section 3., reproduced below:
3. DISCLAIMERS AND USER RESPONSIBILITIES
Role
of Alto. Accounts can be used to invest in private equity, loans,
promissory notes, commodities, real estate, cryptocurrency and other
digital assets and other alternative investments. All investments held
in an Account opened through the Alto Platform are maintained by one or
more third-party custodians (each, the “Custodian”), whose services are
governed by separate terms and conditions. You agree that the
Custodian of your investments may change from time to time, and your
agreement with a Custodian may be assigned to a new Custodian so long as
Alto acts as agent for such Custodian. The Alto Platform and
related services are provided subject to your acceptance of and
continuing compliance with the Custodian’s terms and conditions of
service. (emphasis added.)
It is my view that account holders’ agreement to these terms only authorizes Alto to do exactly as this section states, i.e., “change” the “Custodian of your investments.” It DOES NOT authorize them to execute a market-rate mass liquidation of our digital assest because they chose an inadequate new custodian who does not support a large number of the crypto assets that are available on Coinbase, Alto’s current custodian.
In my case, opting out of this forced migration and selling my holdings would lock in a capital loss of at least $53,000 USD as seen in the Alto dashboard screenshot here, taken 3/26/2026.
However, by liquidating my investment assets and opting out of the migration, I believe I would waive my right to make a claim against Alto and Public. That’s because if I choose to sell, then I made the decision to take the loss. But if Alto sells my property without my permission, which they DO NOT have, they created the financial loss I suffered, not me, and that is an actionable violation of my legal rights. Perhaps you agree?
Yes, the value of the capital loss is due to my average purchase price being below the current market price. Hello bear market. But this loss is only “on paper” i.e., it is “unrealized” and can improve as market conditions recover. However, Alto and Public forcing the liquidation of these investment assets makes the paper loss “realized” with no hope of recovery. After all, these tokens cannot simply be rebought on Zero Hash because they do not support them. I believe the forced selling of our investment assets, whether during a bull or bear market, is a violation of our financial and contractual legal rights.
You and others may face more considerable losses than I do. It is also possible that any potential capital loss we suffer will increase, now that Alto and Public have telegraphed their intentions to mass dump all “unsupported” assets on April 23, 2026. This date will likely be front-run by other account holders simply giving up and selling, and also probably by traders in the crypto market at large looking for their next day trade… all at the expense of prudent long-term investors who trusted Alto to safeguard our retirement investments.
In fact, there is evidence this is
already happening. My total capital loss on March 25, 2026, the day they
announced the migration to Public was only $52,000 and has increased by
+$1000 in a single day. Add in additional holders and day traders
front-running Alto’s sell-off date, and my individual losses could jump
to -$55k? -$60k? Worse?
This ill-planned and ill-timed migration,
completely devoid of consideration for Crypto Roth IRA account holders
is likely to result in millions or even tens of millions of dollars in
realized capital losses, with not so much as a tax write-off to cushion
the blow.
As such, I believe there may be enough affected account
holders that a Class Action lawsuit should be filed against these companies. I have set up the linked Information Form for anyone who wants to be part of this potential class action lawsuit.
And if you’re wondering, yes, I am an
attorney. However, I do not practice complex class action law but I will
work along side the chosen firm (if any) to diligently prosecute the
case and reach a successful outcome for all account holders who are at
risk of, or actually experience financial losses due to this hasty,
mismanaged migration.
Currently, this website exists just to
gauge interest and to determine the general extent of potential account
holder financial losses. The Information Form will
collect minimal personal information, and will only be used to begin
the analysis of the best path forward to protect our legal and financial
rights.
And finally, legal disclaimer time: Nothing on this website should be construed as legal or financial advice. Interacting with this site and completing and submitting the Information Form DOES NOT creates an attorney/client relationship. If there is sufficient interest and a lawsuit is ultimately filed, the law firm representing the plaintiff class will need to gather more account-specific and personal information but we will cross that bridge when we get there. For now, this Information Form is simply to let me know, as a fellow Alto Crypto Roth IRA account holder, that you are interested in potentially joining any potential litgation that may or may not be filed.
I know that was a lot to take in. Thanks for your attention to this serious violation of our legal and financial interests.
Kevin L. King, Esq., LL.M
California Bar #264291