If you've been holding crypto and watching Miami real estate from the sidelines — not wanting to sell your position to fund a down payment — a new mortgage product just changed your options.
Fannie Mae, the government-backed entity that purchases the majority of conforming mortgages in the United States, has announced it will now accept crypto-backed mortgages via a new product developed by mortgage company Better Home and Finance and Coinbase. It's the first crypto-backed mortgage product accepted by Fannie Mae, and it signals a meaningful shift in how digital assets can be used in real estate transactions.
How it actually works
The product is designed for buyers who have enough crypto to fund a down payment but don't want to sell — either because selling would trigger a taxable event or because they don't want to give up future appreciation. Here's the structure: the borrower takes out two loans through Better. The first is a standard mortgage. The second is a smaller loan backed by Bitcoin or USD Coin held in a Coinbase account, and the proceeds from that second loan fund the down payment on the first.
Both loans are held by Better. Once the crypto is pledged as collateral, it can't be traded — but it also doesn't need to be sold. Even if the value of the crypto drops, nothing changes on the loans as long as the borrower keeps making payments. When the loan is repaid, the crypto is returned.
As a concrete example: on a $500,000 home, a borrower could pledge $250,000 in Bitcoin to secure a $100,000 loan that covers the cash down payment on the primary mortgage.
The tradeoffs
This isn't free money. The borrower is paying interest on two loans simultaneously, which raises the overall cost of financing. That said, Better has positioned its rates as competitive, and for buyers holding USD Coin, the yield on those holdings can be used to partially offset the interest payments.
There's also no private mortgage insurance on the second loan, which removes one of the typical costs associated with low-down-payment mortgages.
Why this matters for Miami
Miami has one of the highest concentrations of crypto-holding buyers of any real estate market in the country. The city's appeal to tech entrepreneurs, Latin American investors, and younger wealth accumulators — many of whom built their net worth through digital assets — means this product has a natural audience here.
The typical friction for a crypto-heavy buyer has been the forced choice: sell the asset, pay the taxes, lose the upside, or stay out of the market. This product removes that friction for buyers using Coinbase, at least for Bitcoin and USD Coin positions. Ethereum and Solana may be added in the future.
As Tony Giordano, a real estate agent specializing in cryptocurrency transactions, recently noted: "I don't see how the entire real estate industry will not be on the blockchain within 10 years." Whether or not that timeline proves accurate, the direction of travel is clear — and Fannie Mae's backing of this product is a significant step.
What to do if you're interested
To use this product you'll need a Coinbase account, and the mortgage itself goes through Better Home and Finance. Coinbase One members are eligible for a rebate worth 1% of the mortgage value, capped at $10,000.
If you're a Miami buyer sitting on crypto assets and want to understand how this might work for a specific property or price point, reach out. This is exactly the kind of creative financing conversation I help my clients navigate.
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