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Rewards

Alto distributes rewards through Alto Reward Options (ARO). An ARO grants the right to buy ALTO at a discounted price instead of distributing free tokens. When an ARO is exercised, the payment goes to the Alto Treasury.

Who earns rewards​

Rewards accrue to activity that generates or collects interest within the protocol:

  • Borrowers in any market, including those minting DUSD directly against collateral
  • Lenders supplying DUSD in Borrow Markets

Emissions​

The program is designed to distribute 52,500,000 ALTO (52.5% of total supply) over time, following a decaying schedule. The decay rate can be adjusted by governance, within a fixed ceiling. Distributions run on a regular cadence (planned weekly at launch).

How rewards are calculated​

Rewards are tallied on a regular schedule. For each period, the protocol measures how much interest each address generated or collected since the last round. That amount becomes the basis for rewards. Two multipliers can adjust results: one by activity type (borrowing, lending, minting) and one by market, so governance can encourage certain behaviors or help new markets grow. The final list of entitlements and discounts is then published, and a short, one-day delay before it takes effect allows potential errors to be identified and fixed.

Claiming and exercising​

Rewards are exercised, not simply claimed. Exercising means purchasing ALTO at the recorded discounted price. DUSD and USDC are accepted payment tokens at launch, and the exercise price is updated on a weekly schedule to track market conditions. Partial exercises are supported.

note

ARO is non-transferable; options are not tokenized or tradable.

Boosts and maximum discount​

Discounts shown in the rewards list can be increased at exercise time, up to a global maximum. Two paths are specified:

  • locking the purchased ALTO into staking for the longest term, and
  • applying an approved rewards adapter that adds a bonus discount.
    The combined discount cannot exceed the configured ceiling.

Adapters and referrals​

Rewards adapters can also route a percentage of the payment token from an exercise to a designated address. The initial adapter is a merit-based referral system: referred users receive an extra discount and referrers receive a share of the payment token from those exercises. Both values have immutable caps, and referrers are managed via an off-chain whitelist.

Relation to lending fees​

On the lending side, fee flows are defined as follows: opening fees from new borrows route to stakers, interest in Borrow Markets goes to DUSD lenders, interest in Mint Markets goes to stakers, and the protocol’s share of liquidation fees goes to stakers. These revenues operate alongside ARO exercises, which send payment tokens to the Treasury.

Summary: ARO turns protocol activity into the right to acquire ALTO at a discount. Emissions decline over time, allocations are based on interest generated with simple multipliers, exercises use DUSD or USDC, and optional boosts and adapters provide flexible incentives within clear caps.