Better, a digital mortgage lender, announced that they have launched a new home financing option for American buyers using their cryptocurrency as down payment collateral. The deal, which was done with Coinbase, the largest US-based crypto exchange marks the first known instance where a crypto asset is leveraged to finance the home purchase in the United States.
As the new product is now opened for all users following months of restricted access, homeowners are now able to utilize their crypto holdings to secure the mortgage loan. Better retains responsibility for the mortgage lending, while Coinbase provides crypto custody and transactional infrastructure, with the arrangement representing one of digital assets’ most prominent inroads into the American consumer market.
A short contextualization is required ahead of further discussion on the announcement. Better is an online mortgage lender that aims to digitize and expedite the home purchase process by relying on automated underwriting, which takes away much of the hassle of white-collar lending companies. Meanwhile, Coinbase is a crypto exchange that goes public with listings, custody products, subscription services such as Coinbase One, transactional fees, and various enterprise partnerships, with the latter being a key growth area for the business.
Crypto-backed mortgages have moved in.
Borrowers in the US can now use Bitcoin as collateral for a down payment – without having to sell it or face margin calls.
Plus, Coinbase One members can get up to $10,000 back at closing. pic.twitter.com/wMroUwVahX
— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) August 26, 2026
In any case, the way the lending program works is relatively straightforward, and a brief description can be found on Coinbase’s support page. Essentially, the arrangement takes the form of a Fannie Mae eligible mortgage loan, with an additional down payment loan, which is collateralized with crypto.
In terms of mechanics, crypto users would need to provide a deposit of crypto assets, valued at approximately 2.5 times higher than their down payment loan, which is secured by the borrower’s crypto wallet, held in custodianship by Better and Coinbase Prime. Both loans carry the same APR, and the borrower only needs to make a single monthly payment, as opposed to two separate payments.
There’s a built-in safety net worth noting too. A dip in Bitcoin’s price alone won’t trigger a margin call or force any changes to the loan agreement. The only scenario that puts pledged Bitcoin at risk of liquidation is if a borrower falls 60 days behind on payments.
Once the mortgage is either paid off in full or refinanced, the pledged crypto gets released back to the borrower, assuming all loan conditions have been met. Eligibility still requires a verified Coinbase account and US residency, alongside Better’s usual income, credit, and underwriting checks. Coinbase One subscribers get a bit of a bonus here too, qualifying for a 1% rebate from Better worth up to $10,000 toward closing costs.
This launch doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Regulators have been nudging things in this direction for a while. Back in mid-2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to explore treating crypto held on regulated US exchanges as a legitimate asset in mortgage risk evaluations, without requiring it first be converted to dollars. Other lenders, including Newrez, have already started factoring crypto holdings into mortgage applications as well.
It’s also worth zooming out to the wider digital asset lending landscape, where platforms like Hyperliquid have drawn significant attention for building deep, high-speed markets around collateralized crypto positions, reflecting just how quickly crypto-backed finance is maturing across both centralized and decentralized rails.
As US home prices hover near record territory, with new-home medians around $400,000, products like this one give crypto holders another route into homeownership without forcing a sale of their assets.
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