Housing News

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Buying a Home: Homebuyers May Soon Be Able to Use Crypto to Secure a Mortgage

Homebuyers may soon be able to use cryptocurrency to help them purchase a home.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that back most of the mortgages in the U.S., to begin allowing cryptocurrency to help homebuyers trying to qualify for a mortgage. The news was announced on Wednesday in a social media post.

“In keeping with President Trump’s vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, today I ordered the Great Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage,” Pulte wrote on X.

Allowing lenders to consider digital assets when evaluating mortgage applicants would mark a significant shift in housing finance. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently do not consider these assets. That means that a person’s crypto holdings do not count as part of their financial profile when being evaluated for a mortgage.

Fannie and Freddie changing their rules to allow crypto would have wide-ranging consequences in the housing market as the enterprises help set the guidelines for who qualifies for a mortgage.

“It can be good for younger buyers,” said Ryan Schoen, principal market analyst at New American Funding. “It opens up lending and borrowing and opportunities.”

One key feature is that homebuyers would not need to convert their cryptocurrency into U.S. dollars before their loan closed.

However, Fannie and Freddie must first put together proposals that have safeguards in place to protect against the volatility of these digital assets before homebuyers will be able to use crypto to get mortgages.

Under Pulte’s order, only digital assets on centralized exchanges regulated by the U.S. would be eligible.

“The real estate, housing, and mortgage industries were forever changed…with the addition of crypto,” Pulte later wrote on X.

At a time when many younger buyers are grappling with high prices and elevated mortgage rates, the change, if approved, has the potential to help more people qualify for a mortgage, said Schoen. 

“It’s an opportunity that’s being unlocked,” said Schoen. “People have been turning to crypto to try and increase their wealth as rapidly as possible.”