Alto IRA review: where the Alto CryptoIRA went

The transfer to Public ran from 4 pm on Friday, April 24, 2026, until 8 am on Monday, April 27, 2026. If a coin you held became cash, that's because coins Public doesn't support were sold on 23 April, the day before the move.

Coinbase used to hold your coins. Now they're held via zerohash, while Alto Trust Co continues as custodian. A custodian is the firm that legally holds the assets in the IRA and maintains its records, and that's why the Alto name hasn't gone away completely.

Public lists more than 40 coins, Bitcoin among them, so check that yours is still on the list. Both Traditional and Roth IRAs work here, and money from a 401(k) can roll in.

Public charges at least 1.25% on each purchase and each sale, plus a monthly custody fee equal to 0.05% of your balance. The trading fees you pay during a month get credited toward that month's custody fee, so a month with trading fees means less is owed in custody fees that month.

That yearly amount reflects just the custody fee at each balance. Each additional purchase or sale carries its own 1.25% fee, and trading fees count toward that month's custody fee rather than simply stacking on top.

The private-investment IRA that Alto still operates bills a quarterly account fee tied to your invested total: $0 if you have nothing invested, $37.50 for invested balances below $30,000, and $100 once you reach $30,000. A $50,000 account pays the $100 fee each quarter.

There are also two service fees: a Roth conversion costs $50, and closing the account costs $50. Those charges cover only the private-markets account, not the crypto IRA that Public now holds.

The easy path is a direct rollover. With a direct rollover, your old plan pays the new IRA directly, so nothing is withheld, though moving pre-tax money into a Roth IRA adds taxable income this year. Move $20,000 and the whole $20,000 stays invested.

When the plan pays you personally instead, it becomes an indirect rollover. The plan keeps 20% for federal tax, $4,000 on a $20,000 payout, and you then get 60 days to put the entire $20,000 into an IRA on your own, even the portion that never reached you. Miss that deadline and the money counts as a taxed withdrawal.

Funds sitting in a former employer's plan can move whenever you like. A plan with your current employer can only move while you're still on the job if the plan permits it. New contributions paid straight into an IRA are capped at $7,500 in 2026, so a rollover is the way to move a larger 401(k) balance into a crypto IRA.

Public lands in the middle on the cost of buying in, yet its monthly custody fee leaves it trailing the providers whose annual charge is zero.

The gap grows at $250,000: custody at Public runs $1,500 per year, compared with $0 at iTrustCapital, Fidelity, and Coin IRA. This site carries no custodian links and takes no payment from any provider.

Not sure whether to stay with Public or move? Call today, and a retirement specialist will talk through your own options so you can decide what happens next.