Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ordered to consider crypto as an asset when buying mortgages

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 6:20 PM EDT, June 25, 2025


The head of the federal government agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wants the mortgage giants to consider accepting a homebuyer’s cryptocurrency holdings in their criteria for buying mortgages from banks. William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, ordered the agencies Wednesday to prepare a proposal for consideration of crypto as an asset for reserves when they assess risks in single-family home loans.

Pulte also instructed the agencies that their mortgage risk assessments should not require cryptocurrency assets to be converted to U.S. dollars. And only crypto assets that “can be evidenced and stored on a U.S.-regulated centralized exchange subject to all applicable laws” are to be considered by the agencies in their proposal, Pulte wrote in a written order, effective immediately.

Pulte was sworn in as the head of FHFA in March. Public records show that as of January 2025, Pulte’s spouse owned between $500,000 and $1 million of bitcoin and a similar amount of Solana’s SOL token.

Use of cryptocurrency for buying a home has been generally limited. Among the respondents in a National Association of Realtors survey of people who bought a home between July 2023 and June 2024, only 1% of those who made a down payment said they used proceeds from the sale of crypto.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/mortgages-crypto-fannie-mae-freddie-mac-housing-285fad5490a59c3476f7908f444e9fe9

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Banks will never accept Crypto,

mortgages or otherwise. The value is erratic versus money from the Treasury. The value of a bank’s assets may well differ from the time it closes until it re-opens the next banking day. It screws up accounting. (Think about it: that’s why you don’t deposit gold into your bank account.)

[Hugin]

3. I had never heard it explained quite that way...

It makes sense. Also, why someone wouldn’t deposit equities into a bank account.

Eyebrow raising is the stat from the article that less than 1% of the applications have any connection to crypto. Showing that it is a very small niche that they have been trying to monetize for years. The general population has little interest in outside of not wanting any.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Mortgages

A bank gives a mortgage loan for $500,000 in crypto, but overnight, the value has decreased. That highly impacts the person/entity that took out the mortgage. And vice versa: how could a bank accept loan payments in crypto?

[Buddyzbuddy]

2. Wait, wait, does my Monopoly money count too?

What about all of that unwanted gold I hear so much about?
Like Peter says "I have a stick of gum and a Batman watch, you can pick one"
I can't wait for the music to stop and there is only 1 chair left.

[Hugin]

4. "I can't wait for the music to stop and there is only 1 chair left."

There can only be one and it’s not the one most of them have.

I have a box of Icee Points and S&H Green Stamps I will take in and see if I can refinance.

[Blackjackdavey]

8. baseball cards and record collection

I was hoping they'd count my baseball cards and record collection as there is no apparent difference.

[FalloutShelter]

9. How about my magic beans?

[hay rick]

15. Lottery tickets, of course!

[Wicked Blue]

16. I have some pretty stones in a jar

Will those work?

[twodogsbarking]

6. As of 2024, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain under conservatorship, and after more than repaying their Treasury loans

are building capital reserves for an expected eventual exit.[

[Lonestarblue]

7. Opening the door to massive mortgage losses.

I haven’t had a mortgage in quite a while, but the ability to repay a loan as represented by consistent earnings and a total expense load should be primary.

[FakeNoose]

10. I've got a nice collection of Trump coins and Musk bucks

What can I get for those?

[moniss]

11. How brilliant of an idea for the financial markets

to require institutions to consider a made up word backed by nothing to be an "asset"!!

[cab67]

12. I have a bunch of Schrute bucks.

Some Stanley nickels, too. The exchange rate is stable (same as elves to leprechauns), so I'll use these to pay off my mortgage.

[oasis]

13. Crypto,gypto,klepto!

[ToxMarz]

14. What could go wrong!?

This is what caused the 2008 meltdown. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac lobbied to be allowed to get in on the subprime lending (to increase transaction/profits, they had been privatized for-profit at this time) . $0 down payment, no income verification liar loans. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac then mix them all together and sell them to big institutional lenders. Everything is tainted, and when the three legged stool toppled over, the whole system comes tumbling down. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac are under conservatorship now because of 2008, but repukes are pushing to unleash them again. The billionaire class see this as a money making move, that the Govt will bail out when it fails AGAIN. In this case, the win for them is not just mortgage transactions, but in advancing/legitimizing their crypto ventures as well.

DOH!