Alto is a decentralized credit and incentives protocol built around its own collateral-backed stablecoin, DUSD, which serves as the sole borrowable asset across all isolated markets. Users can borrow, lend, mint, and leverage DUSD using assets like ETH, LSTs, and tBTC as collateral, while ALTO token stakers govern the protocol and receive a share of protocol fees.

The system is structured into isolated markets to ensure that issues in one market cannot affect others, and using a single native stablecoin simplifies accounting, risk management, and capital flows throughout the protocol.