On May 27, Cantor Fitzgerald launched its $2 billion Bitcoin mortgage program for institutional clients, with the first batch of transactions including crypto companies FalconX Ltd. and Maple Finance. As one of the official underwriters of U.S. Treasury bonds, the entry of this century-old Wall Street institution is seen as a highly symbolic breakthrough.
Bitcoin is transforming from a stock asset to a financial instrument that can influence the credit system.
Just one month later, Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), sent out another important signal. He has asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two pillar companies of US housing credit, to study the feasibility of incorporating cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin into the mortgage assessment system. This statement triggered a violent market reaction, and within 24 hours, the price of Bitcoin rose by nearly 2.87%, breaking through $108,000 again.
As the soul-searching question posed in the Coinbase commercial: "In 2012 you needed 30,000 bitcoins to buy a house, but now you only need 5. If house prices have been falling in Bitcoin terms, why have they been rising in US dollars?" What impact will this Bitcoin mortgage have on the US dollar system?
Does Bill Pulte's word count?
Bill Pulte publicly called on Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC) on Twitter to prepare the two companies. Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC) mentioned here are two US government-backed enterprises. Although they do not directly lend money to homebuyers, they play a core "market maker" role in the secondary mortgage market. By purchasing mortgages issued by private institutions, their existence ensures the liquidity and sustainability of the loan market.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), established after the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, is responsible for supervising these two institutions. According to a research report by JPMorgan Chase, as of December 2024, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have guaranteed a total of $6.6 trillion in agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS), accounting for 50% of all outstanding mortgage debt in the United States. Ginnie Mae (directly supervised by HUD), which is fully trust- and credit-guaranteed by the U.S. government, has provided $2.5 billion in MBS, accounting for 20%.
Outstanding balance of agency (Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) mortgage-backed securities as of December 2024, source: jpmorgan
During Trump's first term, stakeholders discussed various GSE (government-sponsored enterprises) reform plans, but no legislative progress was made. The reason why Pulte used the tone of "command" in his tweet was that as the chairman of FHFA, he held a "supervisory" board position in the two companies, and after taking office in March 2025, he carried out drastic personnel and structural reforms, transferred many directors from the two institutions, appointed himself as chairman of the board, and fired 14 executives, including Freddie Mac's CEO, for a comprehensive reorganization, which significantly strengthened FHFA's control over GSE (government-sponsored enterprises) and negotiated with the White House and the Treasury Department to explore public listing plans based on "implicit guarantees". Its policy trends have far-reaching implications for the financial system. Today, FHFA has begun to explore the inclusion of crypto assets in the mortgage underwriting assessment system, marking a structural change in the regulatory authorities' attitude towards crypto assets.
Pulte's personal background adds complexity to the news. As the third-generation head of Pulte Homes, the third largest residential construction company in the United States, and the heir to a real estate family like President Trump, he is also one of the first federal officials among Trump's confidants to publicly support cryptocurrency. As early as 2019, he advocated the philanthropic development of crypto assets on social media and disclosed that he personally held large amounts of Bitcoin and Solana. He has invested in high-volatility assets such as GameStop and Marathon Digital. Unlike ordinary politicians, his investment seems to be more in line with the image of "Degen". Combined with his previous "crypto resume", it seems that his desire to introduce crypto assets into the American home buying system is not a whim.
Divisions within the government
On the other hand, there are actually clear divisions within the government. ProPublica disclosed in March that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is also exploring the use of stablecoins and blockchain technology to track federal housing subsidy funds. A HUD official revealed that the promoter of the blockchain solution is Irving Dennis, the new chief deputy financial officer of HUD and a former partner of global consulting giant Ernst & Young.
Unlike Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are "semi-official GSEs" under the responsibility of FHFA, Ginnie Mae, which is under the responsibility of HUD, is a 100% government agency. Therefore, the discussion in this regard is more rigorous. The proposal encountered fierce opposition internally. Some people believe that this may trigger a subprime mortgage crisis like the 2008 crisis. Some officials even called it "like giving out money with Monopoly coins." An internal memo pointed out that HUD does not lack the ability to audit and track fund flows. The introduction of blockchain and encrypted payments will not only increase complexity, but may also cause fluctuations in the value of the assisted funds and even compliance issues.
Currently, platforms such as Milo Credit and Figure Technologies are already providing Bitcoin-collateralized mortgage products. However, since they cannot securitize and sell loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their loan interest rates are high and their liquidity is limited. Once Bitcoin is included in the federal mortgage underwriting system, it will not only reduce borrowing interest rates, but also mean that holders can release leverage and shift from "HODL" to "building family asset allocation in the United States."
Of course, risks cannot be ignored. As former SEC official Corey Frayer warned, once unstable crypto assets are introduced into the $1.3 trillion mortgage system guaranteed by the FHA, any market value de-anchoring event could bring a systemic impact. Legal scholar Hilary Allen bluntly stated that it is extremely dangerous to use the most vulnerable groups as a test field to force technological change.
The core of this disagreement lies in whether the United States is ready to formally incorporate Bitcoin from an "alternative investment product" into the public financial system. The FHFA's research direction is to allow holders to use their Bitcoin balances to directly meet down payments or reserve requirements. Its far-reaching significance lies in that it allows decentralized assets to have a "housing leverage" effect for the first time. On the other hand, the volatility of crypto assets makes it difficult to value and accrue risks when used as "reserve assets". If Bitcoin prices fluctuate violently, whether it is allowed to be used for mortgage assessment involves financial supervision, liquidity management, and even systemic stability issues.
What does the new FHFA directive say? How have U.S. residents taken out loans with cryptocurrencies before?
Due to the painful lessons of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, current U.S. housing loan assessments have strict restrictions on asset compliance. That is, if a borrower owns cryptocurrencies, they must first be converted into U.S. dollars and kept in a U.S. regulated bank account for 60 days before they can be considered "mature funds" and included in the assessment. The direction proposed by Pulte is obviously intended to break through this process barrier.
The official order, Decision No. 2025-360, requires the two mortgage giants to consider cryptocurrencies as valid assets for borrowers' wealth diversification. Until now, cryptocurrencies have been excluded from mortgage risk assessments because borrowers generally do not convert their digital assets into US dollars before the loan closes. The directive requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals to include cryptocurrencies in borrower reserves in their single-family residential mortgage risk assessments. In addition, the directive stipulates that companies should directly calculate cryptocurrency holdings without converting them into US dollars.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has set clear "guidelines" on which cryptocurrencies are eligible for consideration. Only assets issued on centralized exchanges regulated by the United States and in full compliance with relevant laws are eligible. In addition, companies must incorporate risk mitigation measures into their assessments, including adjustments based on known cryptocurrency market volatility and appropriate risk reductions based on the proportion of cryptocurrency reserves held by the borrower.
Before any changes are implemented, companies must submit their proposals to their respective boards of directors for approval. Once approved by the board, the proposal must be forwarded to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for review and final authorization. The FHFA's decision is consistent with the federal government's broader approach to recognizing cryptocurrencies in financial processes, and consistent with Pulte's remarks that "in response to President Trump's vision of making the United States the world's cryptocurrency capital," the issuance of this directive reflects its commitment to positioning the United States as a leading jurisdiction for cryptocurrency development.
What does this mean?
As we all know, the underlying logic of using a highly liquid asset as collateral to exchange for a low-liquidity asset is valid, but BTC is at the center of interests in multiple dimensions. When it can truly be certified as an asset for US mortgage loans, its "influence" may be no less powerful than the "Bitcoin Reserve Act" proposed by Trump before he took office. This impact will not be limited to a single group. Multiple groups such as the American people, financial institutions, and government departments will be affected.
How many Americans will use Bitcoin to "buy a house", and how much money can be "saved" by using Bitcoin as an intermediary?
Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, a U.S. real estate brokerage company, said: "With plenty of time and a lack of exciting ways to spend, many people began trading cryptocurrencies during the epidemic. Some of these investments have gone to waste, but at the same time, some people have gained a lot of wealth, or at least a level sufficient to pay a down payment on a house."
According to the Security.org 2025 Cryptocurrency Consumer Report, approximately 28% of American adults (about 65 million people) hold cryptocurrencies, with GenZ and millennials accounting for a particularly high proportion, with more than half of them holding or having held crypto assets. As millennials and Generation Z occupyan increasing share of the U.S. real estate market, crypto assets may also become increasingly popular as a payment method for home purchases.
RedFin conducted a popular science survey in 2021. They commissioned the research technology company Lucid to randomly sample 1,500 first-time homebuyers. The most common answer to the question "How did you accumulate the down payment funds?" was "using salary" (52%), while the less common "cash donations from family members" (12%) and "early withdrawal of funds from retirement funds" (10%) were not. It is worth noting that the number of people who "sold cryptocurrency to buy a house" gradually increased from 2019 to 2021, reaching nearly 12% at the end of 2021. Four years later, with the popularization of cryptocurrency, this proportion may have increased further.
As for how much money can be saved, Terence Michael, the Emmy-nominated film and television producer and founder of People's Reserve, shared a story on Twitter Space on June 25. He sold 100 BTC to buy a house in 2017. Now the house is only worth $500,000, but the BTC he sold is worth tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, he founded People's Reserve with the goal of allowing more people to keep Bitcoin and buy houses through mortgage.
So here's a hypothesis: you bought $50,000 worth of Bitcoin in 2017. By 2025, it will be worth $500,000. Instead of selling your Bitcoin and paying $90,000 in capital gains taxes, you work with a crypto mortgage lender, pledge $300,000 in BTC, and get a $300,000 mortgage at 9.25%. The lender holds your Bitcoin in an escrow account, you still own the Bitcoin, and you only pay an annual interest of about $27,000 (less in the future), and save $90,000 in taxes, and you also have the rising trend channel of BTC prices and anti-inflation rights, especially when the Big Beautiful Act raises the US debt ceiling to $5 trillion.
Further reading: "Making $40,000 from cryptocurrency trading requires paying $130,000 in taxes. This is the US tax law that Musk satirized ."
According to data provided by Freddie Mac , the current annual interest rate for 30-year mortgages in the United States generally fluctuates around 7%, while that for 15-year mortgages fluctuates around 6%.
Private institutions such as Milo Credit, which have been operating for some time, can now provide Bitcoin loans with an annual interest rate of 9-10% with an LTV of about 50%, while BTC ecosystem native loan platforms such as People's Reserve can reduce the annual interest rate to 3.5% (if the LTV is 33%). If calculated in this way, based on a 15-year mortgage of $500,000, the monthly savings can be about $1,000, and the total interest will be reduced by $190,000.
Although not all institutions will have such low interest rates, under the promotion of current policies and regulations, interest rates similar to those of general assets may appear in these major US loan institutions. Using Bitcoin loans is undoubtedly a wiser choice for current Americans.
Auxiliary tools to promote the privatization process of GSE
Just one month before FHFA asked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to include cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in their mortgage assessment systems, US President Trump said on his social media Truth, "I am moving forward with the work of taking these great companies (Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) public, but I want to make it clear that the US government will continue to retain its implicit guarantee, and I will unwaveringly regulate them as president."
Opening up the Bitcoin mortgage mechanism provides an indirect but important support path for the privatization of GSEs. It can not only introduce diversified collateral types to the housing finance system, but also create space for the de-governmentalization reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from multiple dimensions such as risk transfer, capital formation, regulatory reconstruction and political coordination.
First, at the level of credit risk management, mortgage loans backed by crypto assets such as Bitcoin are expected to reduce the pressure on the GSEs to play the role of "lender of last resort". Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have long been responsible for providing financing guarantees to a large number of non-traditional borrowers, including those who lack sufficient credit records or income documents. The opening of Bitcoin mortgage loans will give such "credit-invisible" but "asset-visible" crypto-native investors the opportunity to enter the mortgage market through a new mechanism, thereby alleviating the GSEs' unique burden in maintaining housing accessibility. As a decentralized, verifiable, and globally liquid asset, the institutionalization of Bitcoin's mortgage capacity is equivalent to building an alternative loan pool "outside the system", leaving more room for structural optimization of the GSE asset pool after privatization.
In terms of capital structure, the Bitcoin mortgage mechanism may also provide financing support for the GSE privatization process through the crypto-native asset securitization path. One of the biggest obstacles to the GSE at present is the regulatory capital gap of up to $180 billion, which is expected to take more than seven years to fill with retained earnings alone. If Bitcoin mortgages can form scalable, rateable, and packaged mortgage-backed securities (Crypto-MBS), it is expected to attract new types of capital investors and serve as a potential "off-market supplement" to GSE asset-backed securities. The existence of such assets means that GSE can gradually achieve capital independence without relying entirely on congressional funds or taxpayer financing, thereby reducing systemic friction in the government's exit process.
At the same time, this mechanism is also forcing the update of the housing finance regulatory model. The traditional GSE evaluation system is based on cash flow models such as proof of income, debt-to-income ratio and FICO credit score, while the widespread use of crypto asset mortgages emphasizes the evaluation criteria of asset capacity, on-chain history and crypto wallet net value. This shift in risk control logic from "income-oriented" to "asset-oriented" will not only help GSE establish a more flexible and market-oriented credit evaluation model after privatization, but also lay the institutional foundation for the subsequent integration of new mortgage assets. If regulators can accommodate crypto assets into the evaluation model, then GSE will have the opportunity to expand its business boundaries in the future and participate in a wider range of financial asset underwriting, thereby enhancing its market competitiveness.
More importantly, at the political level, the promotion of Bitcoin mortgages helps to build a discourse space for "technological substitution theory" and create a public opinion buffer for the Trump administration to promote the privatization of GSE. Privatization has always faced strong resistance from the Democratic Party, housing rights organizations and some state governments, who are worried that de-government will undermine the financing availability of low- and middle-income families. The legalization of the crypto asset mortgage mechanism provides another policy option: while the government withdraws from direct guarantees, the market can provide alternative financing support through technology, assets and risk-sharing mechanisms. This logic not only helps to balance public opinion, but also provides policymakers with more flexible bargaining chips between reducing government debt and maintaining housing financial stability.
Therefore, although the Bitcoin loan mechanism itself does not constitute a direct tool for GSE privatization, its institutional construction is undoubtedly providing a key "financial buffer zone" for the privatization process. It expands the mortgage asset structure of the housing finance market, releases the policy responsibility space of the GSE, provides a capital substitution channel, and strengthens the market's willingness to accept financial decentralization reforms. In a new political cycle that pursues "smaller government" and "stronger market", the credit function of crypto assets is gradually becoming an important part of promoting structural housing finance reforms.
How much mortgage "pressure" can Bitcoin relieve?
As of now, the total market value of Bitcoin is about $2.1 trillion, which is equivalent to about 17% of the U.S. mortgage market. If the entire market value of Bitcoin is allowed to participate in mortgage support, the $2.1 trillion BTC market can support $1.05 trillion in loan principal (at 50% LTV), accounting for about 8-9% of the existing housing loan stock. If only 50% of the acceptable part is taken as collateral, it can still support $525 billion in loan principal, accounting for 4-5%. Of course, it is not easy for ETFs, some listed companies or sovereign countries to participate, but these parts probably only account for about 10% of the current total.
Therefore, if Bitcoin mortgages are institutionalized, it will not only have far-reaching implications for the crypto community, but will also release unprecedented asset conversion power to traditional finance, opening up a positive cycle path that can release the purchasing power of BTC value without destroying the existing financial system. This means that if the policy is fully implemented, Bitcoin loans may provide hundreds of billions of dollars of new financing power for the housing market, which is more than 100 times the current crypto mortgage market.
The Big and Beautiful Act
If Bill Pulte's call is good for the Bitcoin mortgage business, then the formal signing and implementation of the "Big Beautiful Act" is a round of policy-friendly boosters for the "U.S. real estate industry." The most important one is that the 20% QBI (Qualified Business Income) deduction ratio set in the original "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" will be permanently increased to 23%. This adjustment directly benefits a large number of individuals and legal persons who invest in real estate through limited partnerships, S-corp structures or REITs, and their effective marginal tax rate will be reduced to about 28.49%.
For real estate companies whose balance sheets are centered on rental income, after-tax cash flow will be significantly improved and capital structure will be further optimized. This reform also indirectly reduces the entry cost for entities holding assets such as Bitcoin to purchase real estate through the establishment of entities, providing a more stable compliance framework for the bridge between "on-chain assets and off-chain real estate".
At the same time, the "Big Beautiful Act" restored and extended the 100% additional depreciation mechanism and raised the immediate deduction limit of Section 179 to $2.5 million, allowing the initial capital expenditures of real estate projects to be included in the pre-tax deduction more quickly. This not only encourages concentrated investment in new properties, storage facilities and productive assets, but also helps real estate developers build a more robust cash flow curve in the context of increasing interest rate uncertainty. For investors or RWA project parties who attempt to use Bitcoin assets to leverage the purchase of real estate through DAO, LLC or SPV models, the restoration of the depreciation policy effectively hedges the problems of lagged rental returns and long asset realization cycles, which is conducive to converting digital assets such as BTC into more liquid underlying income rights in real estate projects.
Bitcoin + real estate, it seems that Trump is making his next big move.
What are the projects that are “landing on the beach” in the free market?
Lenders
Milo Credit
Milo Credit is a fintech company based in Florida, USA. It has launched the first cryptocurrency-backed home loan products in the United States since 2022. Its business model allows users to use digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or USDC as collateral, and obtain a loan amount of up to 100% of the property value without a cash down payment. This loan structure does not trigger capital gains tax and does not have a forced liquidation mechanism, allowing borrowers to obtain financial support for home purchases while retaining the upside potential of crypto assets.
Milo offers loans of up to $5 million with a maximum term of 30 years, with current annual interest rates in the 9-10% range, and no early repayment penalties. The security of the collateral assets is managed by third-party custodians such as Coinbase, Gemini, and BitGo. As of early 2025, Milo has issued more than $65 million in crypto-collateralized home loans.
It is worth noting that such loans usually do not meet the US federal housing mortgage standards and cannot be packaged and sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Therefore, the cost of funds is high and the interest rate is correspondingly high. If the bill is passed, the system is expected to further reduce interest rates. In addition, due to the volatile price of crypto assets, Milo still uses a certain degree of over-collateralization to ensure the security of loans.
Ledn
Ledn is headquartered in Canada and is well-known for its Bitcoin-Backed Loans. It has become one of the first crypto-native platforms in the world to explore on-chain asset lending structured products. Ledn's core product allows users to obtain fiat currency (such as US dollars or USDC) loans with Bitcoin as collateral. The LTV is usually 50%, the funds are immediately available, and the shortest loan period can be calculated weekly. Unlike Milo, Ledn is not directly linked to real estate transactions, but as a short-term liquidity solution, it meets the needs of users to obtain cash without selling Bitcoin. In addition, Ledn also provides savings accounts and compound interest services for Bitcoin and USDC. The platform emphasizes security and compliance. The collateral assets are all hosted in third-party institutions and are audited regularly. It has a certain influence in the Canadian and Latin American markets.
Moon Mortgage
Moon Mortgage is a loan platform for crypto-native users, focusing on providing "mortgage Bitcoin to buy a house" services for Web3 entrepreneurs, DAO members, and crypto investors without traditional credit records. Moon Mortgage's flagship product allows users to apply for traditional structured home loans with BTC or ETH as collateral, and the property is used as a secondary mortgage, solving the problem of asymmetric assets and income of borrowers. The platform cooperates with compliant lenders and custodians in the United States to provide users with the same interest rate structure and repayment mechanism as traditional mortgages. At the same time, it replaces FICO credit scores with a self-developed evaluation model, focusing on evaluating users' on-chain asset history and risk tolerance. Moon Mortgage is more vertically positioned, serving crypto-native buyers, emphasizing the concept of "getting on board without selling coins", and is one of the few mortgage projects in the US market that is open to people with on-chain identities.
People's Reserve
People’s Reserve is a crypto-financial infrastructure project created by CJK Konstantinos, dedicated to building a mortgage and credit system with Bitcoin at its core. The project is developing a variety of “Bitcoin-driven” financial products, including self-repaying mortgages and HEBLOCs (Home Equity Bitcoin Line of Credit), which exchange home equity for Bitcoin liquidity. The core design concept of People’s Reserve is to release the economic value of Bitcoin while protecting the user’s Bitcoin ownership. These products will not use the pledged Bitcoin for re-pledge (i.e., no rehypothecate) and use a multi-signature custody mechanism to prevent user assets from being controlled by centralized institutions. At the same time, People’s Reserve hopes that its loan interest rates can be comparable to traditional housing loans, thereby increasing the mainstream acceptability of crypto finance. The platform is still in the product development stage and has not yet been officially launched, but the official website notification subscription channel has been opened, and the first batch of test services are expected to be launched on July 4.
Infrastructure
Beeline Title
Beeline Title is not a crypto loan provider, but a blockchain service company dedicated to building property registration and digital custody infrastructure for crypto mortgages. The agency focuses on digitizing the property registration process and combining it with the crypto asset custody mechanism to achieve full-chain, paperless housing ownership registration and debt management. According to AInvest, Beeline Title will officially launch its national service platform in August 2025, when it will assist in completing the first batch of real estate loan transactions secured by Bitcoin. The emergence of Beeline means that the connection between crypto assets and real estate is gradually being standardized and compliant, laying the institutional and technical foundation for large-scale implementation in the future.
MicroStrategy has also made corresponding contributions in infrastructure. They have developed a BTC credit model. Pulte directly expressed his interest in it on the social media X.
Can Bitcoin change the “old rules”?
From the century-old securities firms on Wall Street to the federal housing finance regulators, from Trump's public statements to the reshaping of the capital structure of the real estate industry, the financial order based on Bitcoin is infiltrating from top to bottom. Bitcoin's identity has evolved from "digital cash" to "electronic gold" and is now about to become a "credit medium", providing a new way of organizing capital for traditional finance. And this "decentralized assets + federal credit tools" architecture impacts the deepest design logic of mortgage loans.
In the future, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac truly accept Bitcoin as part of their underwriting model, perhaps a new financial paradigm and ecology will be born. Bitcoin will no longer represent just a storage of wealth, but also a new lever that can leverage housing, taxation, credit and even national governance.
The institutionalization of Bitcoin mortgages may become the most symbolic "tool" in Trump's "big and beautiful" era.
