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Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage giant that underwrites roughly 40% of all US home loans, will for the first time allow cryptocurrency-backed assets to be used within mortgage financing. This represents a landmark shift that pulls digital assets from the fringes of finance into the beating heart of the American housing market.
Mortgage company Better Home & Finance and crypto exchange Coinbase Global announced a new product on March 26, 2026 that links digital assets to down payments on Fannie Mae-eligible home loans. The significance here is less about the product itself and more about who is blessing it – when Fannie Mae updates its guidelines, lenders across the country follow.
They said $BTC is worthless…
Now you might be able to use it to buy a house.
Meanwhile: Fannie Mae (multi-trillion mortgage giant) exploring crypto-backed mortgages
Show this to the haters. pic.twitter.com/TMXHCltnyE
— Wise Advice (@wiseadvicesumit) March 26, 2026
The program enables borrowers to transfer their digital assets from Coinbase into a Better custody wallet while retaining ownership, avoiding the need to sell crypto and trigger a taxable event. A person looking to purchase a house would first get a 15 or 30-year Fannie Mae-backed mortgage from Better, and instead of using cash for a down payment, can take out a separate loan in Bitcoin or USDC.
For USDC holders, the structure allows them to continue earning rewards while their assets serve as collateral. Only cryptocurrency held on US-regulated exchanges, such as Coinbase, would qualify, with lenders applying adjusted valuations to account for volatility.
Get your house and keep your crypto.
Crypto-backed mortgages are here – increasing access to homeownership for millions of Americans.
Buy a home without converting your portfolio by using BTC or USDC as collateral for your down payment.
Offered by Better, powered by Coinbase. pic.twitter.com/9hfL3fVty5
— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) March 26, 2026
The product comes at a cost. Rates will run between half a percentage point and 1.5 percentage points above a standard 30-year mortgage, depending on the borrower’s profile.
One feature that sets this product apart from conventional crypto lending is its treatment of price volatility, historically one of the biggest risks in digital asset financing.
The loans carry no margin calls. If Bitcoin’s price falls, the mortgage terms stay unchanged, and no additional collateral is required – market movements alone never trigger liquidation. Borrowers face liquidation risk only after a 60-day payment delinquency, under terms similar to those of conventional mortgages.
However, there is a trade-off. Homeowners will not be able to trade the cryptocurrency assets they have pledged, which would be detrimental if the price of Bitcoin were to rise, but beneficial if it tumbled.
The announcement did not emerge in a vacuum. The US housing chief ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare for crypto assessment in mortgages last year, with the housing regulator studying crypto holdings in the mortgage qualification process.
Both enterprises were told to factor in risk mitigants, including adjustments for market volatility and caps on how much of a borrower’s total reserves could be composed of cryptocurrency, with board approval required before submission to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
Major lenders have also shown growing interest, with $778 billion mortgage lender Newrez announcing earlier this year that it was assessing Bitcoin and Ethereum for mortgage qualification as part of broader institutional adoption.
“The ability to transform digital wealth into housing access is a milestone,” said Max Branzburg, head of consumer and business products at Coinbase. “Token-backed mortgages are a first step toward unlocking homeownership for younger generations.”
The companies believe the addressable market is enormous. Roughly 52 million Americans, about 20% of adults, have owned digital assets, and Coinbase data shows 45% of younger investors own crypto, compared with 18% of older cohorts, suggesting digital assets are becoming a primary store of value for a new generation.
Better founder Vishal Garg pointed out that roughly 41% of American families fail to buy a home simply because they lack the cash for a down payment, even when they hold savings elsewhere. Garg estimated Better may have missed up to $40 billion in mortgage originations by not offering such a product sooner.
Shares of Better Home & Finance jumped as much as 5.6% in pre-market trading following the announcement, while Coinbase shares slipped 2.25% since the beginning of the year.
The companies said they plan to expand the range of eligible collateral over time, potentially including tokenized equities, fixed income instruments, and real estate assets – a sign that Thursday’s announcement may be only the opening chapter of a much larger transformation in how Americans finance their homes.
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