Better and Coinbase’s new product raised fresh questions for Fannie Mae
Better Home & Finance’s new partnership with Coinbase promised a way for crypto‑rich borrowers to finance Fannie Mae–eligible mortgages without selling their tokens. The announcement landed in a market still digesting a 2025 directive that pushed the government‑sponsored enterprises to reckon with digital assets in their risk models.
Despite headlines, the move does not mean Fannie Mae has officially embraced crypto‑backed mortgages. Instead, it highlights a narrow structure designed to sit inside existing rules, and a broader policy debate that remains unresolved.
“Better and Coinbase are now offering a down payment program that uses Bitcoin or USDC and the subject property (via a subordinate lien) as collateral,” said Tye McWhorter, associate at national mortgage law firm Polunsky Beitel Green.
“Although this does not mean Fannie Mae is now accepting crypto‑backed mortgages, wider adoption of these products could serve as the catalyst that drives the GSEs to follow through on Bill Pulte’s June 2025 call to count crypto as a legitimate asset class,” he said.
Under the program, eligible borrowers pledged Bitcoin or USDC held at Coinbase as collateral for their down payment rather than liquidating it. There are no margin calls if crypto prices fall, but borrowers who missed payments for roughly two months risk having that collateral liquidated.
McWhorter said the structure still matters for a rising cohort of digital‑asset holders.
“Even if the GSEs do not budge, an offering like this opened financing avenues to the next generation: young, tech‑savvy individuals who often hold substantial cryptocurrency assets, allowing them to tap into their accumulated wealth without realizing capital gains,” he said.
FHFA’s crypto directive
In June 2025, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in single‑family mortgage risk assessments, without requiring conversion to dollars.
That guidance pushed the GSEs to recognize properly documented crypto as part of borrower reserves, but it did not create a standalone category of fully crypto‑collateralized loans.
Market split over crypto collateral
Some originators saw growing demand from clients looking to borrow against long‑held Bitcoin gains rather than sell and trigger taxes, while others had “only closed one deal in the past seven years” involving crypto at closing.
Crypto‑specialist lender Milo framed digital‑asset‑backed down payments as one more tool in a landscape where traditional down‑payment assistance faced headwinds, but brokers warned that volatility and documentation made such loans harder to manufacture at scale.
Industry groups and compliance attorneys also pointed to unresolved questions around custody, price shocks and how far taxpayer‑backed entities should go in recognizing an asset class still prone to double‑digit intraday swings.
For now, Better and Coinbase’s product looks less like a wholesale rewrite of the agency playbook and more like an early test of how far the system could stretch to meet a niche, but influential, slice of borrowers.
How Fannie Mae ultimately translated FHFA’s directive into binding underwriting guidance would determine whether crypto stays at the margins of housing finance or became a durable part of the GSEs’ risk calculus.
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