Can you buy a house with Bitcoin? Fannie Mae partners with Coinbase to launch crypto-backed loans

Original Title: Fannie Mae Partners With Coinbase To Allow Crypto And Stablecoin Payments For Home Loans And Mortgages
Original Author: The Winepress
Translation by: Peggy, BlockBeats

Original Author: Rhythm BlockBeats

Original Source:

Reprinted from: Mars Finance

Editor’s Note: What consequences will arise when “buying a house with cryptocurrency” evolves 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 home prices and stagnant incomes, with young people systematically blocked from the down payment threshold. Traditional pathways rely on savings and credit, while cryptocurrency holders are trapped in a state of “having assets but lacking liquidity.” The partnership between Coinbase and Fannie Mae essentially opens a path—transforming on-chain wealth into real-world home-buying capacity.

However, the key to this mechanism lies not in “whether you can buy a house,” but in “how and at what cost you can buy a house.” Essentially, it replaces savings with collateral and time with leverage: the down payment no longer comes from accumulation but from another loan; assets are no longer liquidated but are re-pledged. While the threshold is lowered, the overall leverage is elevated.

When cryptocurrency enters a regulated, government-backed housing finance system, it brings not only opportunities but also potential risks—shifting from liquidity issues to long-term interest rate and leverage pressures.

From a more macro perspective, this may mark the starting point for real estate tokenization. Stablecoins, on-chain credit, and asset pledging are gradually being integrated into the traditional financial system. Housing becoming the focal point of this process is not surprising.

It is worth noting whether this truly opens a new door for young people or leads them into a more complex and highly leveraged financial system. The answer will require time to verify.

The following is the original text:

Earlier this week, the government-backed mortgage institution, Fannie Mae, announced a partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to allow cryptocurrency and stablecoin payments for housing loans and mortgages.

In a press release dated 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 homeownership. Under the new crypto mortgage model supported by Coinbase for Better, potential homebuyers will soon be able to use Bitcoin or USDC in their Coinbase accounts to make a down payment. These loans will be issued and serviced by Better and backed by Fannie Mae, just like other compliant mortgages.

For the tens of millions of Americans holding digital assets, crypto mortgages provide a new option for obtaining housing in an increasingly tightening market."

Coinbase believes that against the backdrop of many Americans being excluded from the housing market, real estate tokenization is expected to alleviate this structural problem.

“Homeownership is one of the most important engines of intergenerational wealth accumulation, but accessing this opportunity is becoming increasingly difficult. The traditional housing system favors the older generation, who benefit from decades of compounded growth in property value, while this growth continues to widen the gap between home prices and incomes.”

Previously, The WinePress also pointed out that a large number of Americans have indeed been “pushed out” of the housing market, and this trend is persistent; if policies are not adjusted, it will only worsen.

In January of this year, Donald Trump stated during a cabinet meeting that he did not hope for falling home prices but rather for them to continue rising, to protect the wealth of existing homeowners while providing other paths for young people—such as the “50-year mortgage” he previously proposed.

Innovation in loan structure: using crypto assets to “leverage” the down payment

Coinbase subsequently explained the core logic and advantages of this mechanism, which fundamentally addresses the key friction of “liquidity.”

In this model, cryptocurrency holders do not need to come up with all the cash at once or sell their assets to obtain a housing loan. By incorporating 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 similarly to traditional mortgages and has the same legal protections. However, the key difference is that borrowers do not need to make a cash down payment but instead obtain a separate loan by pledging cryptocurrency to cover the down payment.

Specifically, a “two-loan” structure will be formed when purchasing a home:

The first loan is a standard Fannie Mae mortgage for the property itself;

The second loan is used to pay the cash down payment, secured by the cryptocurrency you pledge.

A key design feature of Better is that both loans have the same interest rate and amortization period, allowing the borrower to repay a single combined monthly payment, which is a first in the market.

For example, if you want to buy a property worth $500,000, you can pledge $250,000 worth of Bitcoin to obtain a $100,000 loan for the down payment. During the loan period, 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 will not change due to fluctuations in Bitcoin prices; even if the market fluctuates, your mortgage conditions remain unchanged.

From a broader perspective, this product is seen as a key attempt for cryptocurrency assets to enter the real financial system. Stablecoins are widely used in global payments and fund management, and tokenization is gradually permeating credit, sovereign debt, and capital markets, with housing finance seen as the next focal point.

These new crypto mortgages are the first step in incorporating cryptocurrency assets into the core infrastructure of the U.S. housing finance system. This is the real-world manifestation of the “Everything Exchange” vision, enabling not just the trading of various assets on-chain but also allowing these assets to be utilized in the real world. This proves that crypto assets can interoperate with regulated, government-backed systems, bringing greater economic freedom and widening the paths to achieving the “American Dream.”

In an interview with CNBC, Better’s CEO Vishal Garg stated, “We have finally built the infrastructure so that any tokenized asset in America can be pledged to help people achieve homeownership. It all starts with Bitcoin and USDC, but in the future, it could extend to Apple stocks, Amazon stocks, or any publicly traded mutual funds, bond funds, or even the assets you hold in your retirement accounts (IRA)—these can all be used to pledge support for buying a home.”

Max Branzburg, Coinbase’s head of consumer and business products, added, “Mortgage loans backed by tokens are a crucial step in opening homeownership for the younger generation, who face barriers with traditional down payment savings.”

Costs and risks: higher thresholds or another form of leverage?

However, this model is not without costs.

CNBC points out that borrowers need to repay two loans simultaneously, which will significantly increase overall costs.

The Wall Street Journal also elaborated on this: the operation of this new type of mortgage product is as follows: homebuyers first obtain a traditional 15 or 30-year mortgage backed by Fannie Mae from Better; meanwhile, homebuyers do not need to pay a cash down payment but obtain a separate loan by pledging Bitcoin or USDC (mainstream stablecoins) to cover the down payment.

Since the second loan replaces the cash down payment, borrowers need to pay interest on both loans at the same time, which will significantly raise the overall cost of buying a home. The interest rates on the two loans are roughly equivalent to typical Fannie Mae mortgage rates or up to about 1.5 percentage points higher.

In other words, this solution essentially replaces “savings” with “leverage.”

However, Better’s CEO Vishal Garg stated that the rates provided by its platform are still lower than those of competitors, and the rates and terms of the two loans remain aligned. He said, “You still retain the appreciation potential of the assets; in the case of USDC, the assets you hold and the income they generate can be used to hedge the interest expenses of the mortgage loan.”

The Wall Street Journal also cited a Redfin survey conducted in 2025, which indicated that over 10% of millennials and Gen Z had sold crypto assets to pay for a down payment on a house.

From a broader perspective, this initiative is seen as a key step in the comprehensive tokenization process of real estate.

Real estate agent Tony Giordano, who focuses on the crypto space, stated on the Property Play podcast, “I don’t see any possibility of the entire real estate industry not migrating to blockchain in the next 10 years.”