Better Home & Finance and Coinbase have rolled out a mortgage structure that lets borrowers pledge Bitcoin or USDC to help fund a home purchase, setting up an early test of whether digital assets can plug into the U.S. banking and housing-finance system. The product combines a conforming first-lien mortgage that meets Fannie Mae standards with a separate private loan for the down payment, backed by crypto and secured by a second lien on the property. Better said the waitlist ahead of the summer launch represented roughly $250 million in potential loan volume, and 41% of applicants lacked enough cash for a down payment. The structure has already triggered political pushback. On April 30, seven U.S. senators wrote to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, naming Better and Coinbase and urging the agency to revoke any approval tied to the program. Their objections centered on the product’s 250% Bitcoin collateral requirement, the cost of carrying two loans at once, and the risk that losses could ultimately be borne by taxpayers. The debate reaches past one mortgage product: it touches banking appetite for crypto-linked loans, the legal uncertainty around tokenized assets used as collateral, and Better’s own effort to lower funding costs through stablecoin-based financing.

Better Home & Finance and Coinbase have introduced a mortgage structure that lets borrowers pledge Bitcoin or USDC to help cover a home down payment, an attempt to solve a long-standing liquidity problem for asset-rich buyers who do not want to sell holdings, trigger taxes and then wait to see whether a bid is accepted. The product, launched in March and first used by a couple in Ann Arbor, Michigan in early June, combines a conforming first-lien mortgage with a separate privately financed down-payment loan secured by crypto and a second lien on the home. Better said the waitlist represented about $250 million in potential loans before the summer launch, and 41% of applicants did not have enough cash for a down payment. The structure has quickly become a political flashpoint. Seven U.S. senators urged Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte to revoke the approval tied to the arrangement, arguing that the 250% collateral requirement for Bitcoin shows the underlying asset is risky and that carrying interest on two loans could leave borrowers paying as much as 1.5 percentage points above a standard Fannie Mae mortgage rate. The debate is broader than mortgage design alone. It also reaches into the legal ambiguity of tokenized assets, where ownership rights can differ sharply from one product to another, and into Better’s own effort to cut funding costs through stablecoin and tokenized finance partnerships.

A Wall Street Journal report says Better and Coinbase are preparing a mortgage product that would let some buyers pledge crypto holdings instead of selling them before closing.

Fannie Mae partners with Coinbase to accept BTC and USDC as mortgage down payment collateral. Dual-structure avoids margin calls, interest rates 0.5-1.5% higher. FHFA directive drove the policy shift.

The crypto market cap fell to $2.43 trillion, with BTC and ETH both declining and the Fear and Greed Index at 13. OKX said it is not rushing a U.S. IPO, while Moonwell blocked a $14 million governance attack attempt.

Bill Pulte is reportedly set to become interim national intelligence director while retaining his FHFA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac roles. His long-running public support for Bitcoin has added a crypto angle to the appointment.

A new FHFA directive asks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare plans to treat verified crypto holdings as mortgage reserves without converting them to US dollars first.

Trump directed FHFA to use about $200 billion from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy MBS and ease mortgage rates without changing Fed policy. Analysts say the effect may be limited as housing supply constraints remain unresolved.