Fannie Mae (FNMA) is set to soon begin accepting cryptocurrency-backed mortgages, according to an announcement on Thursday from mortgage originator Better Home & Finance (BETR) and the crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN).
Shares in Better Home surged by as much as 12% after the announcement before pulling back slightly, while Coinbase traded down by roughly 1.1%. Mortgage-backed securities giant Fannie Mae slid by roughly 4.6% in the over-the-counter market, according to Yahoo Finance data.
A new product launched by the two companies will allow individuals to originate mortgages with Better Home that conform to Fannie Mae standards while using bitcoin (BTC-USD) or USD Coin (USDC-USD) as collateral for the loan, the companies said in a press release on Thursday.
Read more: Is bitcoin’s price volatility an investing opportunity? Here’s how to buy bitcoin.
Individuals will apply for regular 15- or 30-year mortgages with Better that conform to Fannie Mae standards, but instead of paying a cash down payment, the homebuyer will receive a separate loan backed by their bitcoin or USDC holdings.
The launch of the “token-backed mortgage product,” Better said, “marks the first time an AI-native mortgage lender has used secured digital asset loans and the platform of a major crypto exchange to create a direct pathway from digital wealth to homeownership.”
The products “empower Americans who own digital assets but lack sufficient downpayment funds, or prefer to keep downpayment funds liquid, to secure a home loan by pledging their tokenized assets as collateral,” the company said.
While the offering is not the first cryptocurrency mortgage product to reach the market, the Wall Street Journal reported, the involvement of Fannie Mae brings crypto products more into the mainstream financial system, as Fannie is backed by the federal government and managed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Better said on Thursday that its new crypto-backed mortgages will have “no margin calls” and “no top-ups,” noting that if the price of bitcoin drops, the mortgage terms will remain stable with no additional collateral requirements and “market movements alone never trigger liquidation.”
The company also said that individuals pledging bitcoin or USDC instead of paying a cash down payment will only be at risk of liquidation in the event of a 60-day payment delinquency, which Better noted is similar to current Fannie Mae-conforming mortgage standards.
A 2025 Redfin survey found that more than 10% of millennial and Gen Z homebuyers sold crypto holdings to help fund their down payments, the Journal reported.
