Original Title: Fannie Mae Partners With Coinbase To Allow Crypto And Stablecoin Payments For Home Loans And Mortgages
Original Author: The Winepress
Translated by: Peggy, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: What consequences will arise when "buying a house with crypto assets" transforms from a slogan into a financial structure supported by Fannie Mae?
For a long time, the core contradiction in the U.S. housing market has not changed: rising housing prices, lagging incomes, and young people systematically blocked from affording down payments. Traditional pathways rely on savings and credit, while crypto asset holders are stuck in a state of "having assets, but lacking liquidity." The cooperation between Coinbase and Fannie Mae essentially opens a path — converting on-chain wealth into real-world home-buying capability.
But the key to this mechanism lies not in "whether one can buy a house," but in "how and at what cost one buys a house." Essentially, it replaces savings with collateral and substitutes leverage for time: down payments no longer come from accumulation but from another loan; assets also no longer get liquidated but are re-pledged. While the threshold is lowered, overall leverage is raised.
When crypto assets enter a regulated and government-backed housing finance system, it brings not only opportunities but also the potential transfer of risks — from liquidity issues to long-term interest rate and leverage pressure.
From a broader perspective, this may be the starting point for real estate tokenization. Stablecoins, on-chain credit, and asset pledging are gradually integrating into traditional financial systems. Housing being the focal point of this process is not surprising.
One must be cautious: is this truly opening a new door for young people, or is it leading them into a more complex and leveraged financial system? The answer will take time to verify.
Here is the original text:
Earlier this week, the government-backed mortgage agency Fannie Mae announced a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to allow cryptocurrency and stablecoin as collateral for issuing home loans and mortgages.
In a press release published on March 26, Coinbase referred to this initiative as "a new path to homeownership."
A Generation Pushed Out of the Market and a "New Path"
"Millions of Americans now have a new path to home buying. Under the new crypto mortgage model supported by Coinbase for Better, prospective homebuyers can soon use Bitcoin or USDC from their Coinbase accounts to pay for a down payment. These loans will be issued and serviced by Better and will receive backing from Fannie Mae, just like other compliant mortgages.
For tens of millions of Americans holding digital assets, crypto mortgages provide a new option for obtaining housing in an increasingly tightening housing market."
Coinbase believes that, in the context of many Americans being excluded from the housing market, real estate tokenization has the potential to alleviate this structural problem.
"Homeownership is one of the most crucial engines of intergenerational wealth accumulation, but access to this opportunity is becoming increasingly difficult. The traditional housing system favors the older generation, who benefit from decades of compounded growth in property equity, which is continually widening the gap between housing prices and incomes."
Previously, The WinePress also pointed out that a significant number of Americans have, in fact, been "pushed out" of the housing market, and this trend is persistent; without policy adjustments, it will only worsen.
In January of this year, Donald Trump mentioned in a cabinet meeting that he does not want housing prices to fall but to continue rising, in order to protect the wealth of existing homeowners while providing other pathways for young people — such as his proposed "50-year mortgage."
Structural Innovation of Two Loans: Using Crypto Assets to "Leverage" the Down Payment
Coinbase subsequently explained the core logic and advantages of this mechanism, fundamentally addressing the key friction of "liquidity."
In this model, crypto asset holders do not need to pay out all cash at once nor sell assets to obtain housing loans. By including digital assets into the underwriting process as collateral, on-chain wealth can be transformed into real-world purchasing power — broadening the path to home buying while retaining long-term investment positions.
This product is legally structured almost identically to traditional mortgages, with the same legal protections. But a key difference lies in that: borrowers do not need to pay a cash down payment but secure a separate loan by pledging crypto assets to cover the down payment.
Specifically, when purchasing a home, a "two-loan" structure will be formed:
The first is a standard Fannie Mae mortgage for the property itself;
The second is used to pay the cash down payment, secured by the crypto assets you pledge.
A crucial design by Better is that both loans have the same interest rate and amortization period, allowing the borrower to repay one combined monthly payment, which is a market first.
For example, if you want to buy a property worth $500,000, you can pledge $250,000 worth of Bitcoin to secure a $100,000 loan for the down payment. During the duration of the loan, your crypto assets will be held in Better's Coinbase Prime account and returned after the loan is paid off. Furthermore, when borrowers choose to pledge Bitcoin, the loan terms do not change due to fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price; even with market volatility, your mortgage conditions remain unchanged.
From a broader perspective, this product is seen as a key attempt for crypto assets to enter the real financial system. Stablecoins are widely used in global payments and fund management, and tokenization is progressively infiltrating credit, sovereign debt, and capital markets, with housing finance viewed as the next focal point.
These new crypto mortgages are the first step in incorporating crypto assets into the core infrastructure of the U.S. housing finance system. This reflects the vision of the "Everything Exchange," not only trading various assets on-chain but also enabling these assets to be used in the real world. It demonstrates that crypto assets can interoperate with regulated and government-backed systems, thereby delivering greater economic freedom and broadening the path to achieving the "American Dream."
In an interview with CNBC, Better's CEO Vishal Garg stated, "We have finally built the infrastructure that allows any tokenized assets in America to be pledged to help people achieve home ownership. It all starts with Bitcoin, with USDC, but in the future, it could extend to Apple stocks, Amazon stocks, or any publicly traded mutual fund, bond fund, or even assets you hold in your retirement account (IRA) — all of which can be pledged to support your home purchase."
Coinbase's consumer and commercial product head Max Branzburg added, "Mortgages backed by tokenized assets are a crucial step in opening homeownership for those facing obstacles in traditional down payment savings among the younger generation."
Cost and Risk: Higher Thresholds, or Another Form of Leverage?
However, this model does not come without a cost.
CNBC points out that borrowers will need to make payments on two loans simultaneously, which will significantly increase overall costs.
The Wall Street Journal also clarified that this new mortgage product operates as follows: homebuyers first obtain a traditional 15 or 30-year mortgage backed by Fannie Mae from Better; simultaneously, instead of paying a cash down payment, homebuyers secure a separate loan by pledging Bitcoin or USDC (mainstream stablecoin) to cover the down payment.
Since cash down payment is replaced by the second loan, borrowers need to pay interest on both loans, significantly raising the overall cost of buying a home. The interest rates for both loans fall within a range similar to typical Fannie Mae mortgage rates, or may be up to approximately 1.5 percentage points higher.
In other words, this scheme essentially replaces "savings" with "leverage."
However, Better's CEO Vishal Garg stated that the rates provided by their platform are still lower than competitors’ and that both loans maintain consistent rates and terms. He stated, "You still retain the appreciation potential of your assets; in the case of USDC, the assets you hold and their generated income can be used to hedge against mortgage interest expenses."
The Wall Street Journal also cited a survey by Redfin in 2025, which found that over 10% of millennials and Generation Z had sold crypto assets to pay for down payments on homes.
From a broader perspective, this initiative is viewed as a key step in the comprehensive tokenization process of real estate.
Real estate agent Tony Giordano, who focuses on the crypto sector, stated on the Property Play podcast, "I don't see a possibility that the entire real estate industry won't migrate to the blockchain in the next decade."
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