Mortgage-backed securities giant Fannie Mae (FNMA) is set to soon begin accepting cryptocurrency-backed mortgages, according to an announcement on Thursday from mortgage originator Better Home & Finance (BETR) and the crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN).
Shares in Better Home surged as much as 12% following the announcement, while Coinbase traded down by roughly 1.1%. Fannie Mae traded slid by roughly 4.6% in the over-the-counter market, according to Yahoo Finance data.
A new product launched by the two companies will allow individuals to originate mortgages with Better Home that conform to Fannie Mae standards while using bitcoin (BTC-USD) or USD Coin (USDC-USD) as collateral for the loan, the companies said in a press release on Thursday.
The launch of the “token-backed mortgage product marks the first time an AI-native mortgage lender has used secured digital asset loans and the platform of a major crypto exchange to create a direct pathway from digital wealth to homeownership,” Better said.
The products “empower Americans who own digital assets but lack sufficient downpayment funds, or prefer to keep downpayment funds liquid, to secure a home loan by pledging their tokenized assets as collateral,” the company said.
While the offering is not the first cryptocurrency mortgage product to reach the market, the Wall Street Journal reported, the involvement of Fannie Mae brings crypto products more into the mainstream financial system, as Fannie is backed by the federal government and managed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
A survey by Redfin in 2025 found that more than 10% of millennial and Gen Z homebuyers sold crypto holdings to help fund their down payments, the Journal reported.