U.S. agency directs mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider crypto assets

Crypto holdings could soon count toward U.S. mortgages under a new directive by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In a directive issued by FHFA director William J. Pulte on June 25, the agency instructed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals for including cryptocurrency holdings in single-family mortgage risk assessments. Previously, digital assets have not been included in mortgage lenders’ risk models unless they are converted to fiat. 

This policy marks a major shift in the way borrower reserves may be assessed, possibly enabling crypto assets to be considered when approving loans without first being converted into U.S. dollars. Before implementation, each institution must submit board-approved proposals. Only holdings that can be verified on regulated U.S. exchanges will be taken into consideration.

The directive called for extra protections to ensure sound underwriting practices and take market volatility into account. Critics have pointed out that the measure does not include self-custodied assets, which might prevent crypto-native users who value decentralization from participating.

Concerns have also been raised about Pulte’s family’s cryptocurrency ties. As of January 2025, his spouse reportedly owned between $500,000 and $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL). Although there are no accusations of misconduct, the timing has sparked questions about potential conflicts of interest.

This is not the first time crypto has been accepted as legitimate collateral in U.S. financial systems.  In June, JPMorgan Chase began accepting spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, such as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, as loan collateral. Despite not being directly related to cryptocurrency, the exposure represents a big change in policy for a major traditional bank. 

Federally chartered cryptocurrency bank Anchorage Digital also offers crypto-backed loans through its collaboration with Arch Lending, accepting Solana, Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin as collateral. At the same time, BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, is now accepted as collateral for institutional trading on exchanges like Deribit and Crypto.com. 

These developments show that traditional finance is becoming more comfortable using digital assets as collateral. With the adoption of the FHFA’s crypto directive, crypto-backed mortgages may become a standard in U.S. housing finance, giving holders of digital assets access to greater financial inclusion.