Written by: Eric, Foresight News

On the evening of March 26, Beijing time, The Wall Street Journal reported that the American mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae will accept cryptocurrency for the first time, in collaboration with Coinbase and the mortgage company Better Home & Finance Holding Co. recognized by Fannie Mae.

This move, regarded as another recognition of the Web3 field by traditional financial institutions, has been almost drowned out by the skepticism of many netizens...

According to relevant reports and an announcement from Better, this loan is only for the "down payment," aimed at resolving the troubles that homebuyers face when they need to sell assets to make a down payment, along with some tax-related issues that arise from it. Currently, the supported crypto assets are only Bitcoin and USDC, requiring borrowers to transfer the coins to a Coinbase custodian address, with collateral rates of only 40% and 80%, respectively. In addition, the interest rates for using cryptocurrency mortgages are higher than ordinary home mortgage rates by 0.5% to 1.5%.

However, the good point is that borrowers do not need to supplement their collateral due to a drop in Bitcoin prices; liquidation of collateral will only occur in cases of overdue payments exceeding 60 days. Yet, the USDC collateral with only 80% will be a bit hard to manage.

This loan product is not prepared for mortgages but is intended for down payments. In other words, it gives you the "opportunity" to use Bitcoin as collateral to borrow money for the down payment, and then mortgage the house you buy to borrow money for the remaining amount, resulting in two loans.

Let's do a simple calculation: suppose you want to buy a property priced at $400,000, with a down payment ratio of 20%, that is, $80,000. If you mortgage Bitcoin to pay this $80,000, you will need to collateralize Bitcoin worth $200,000. Currently, the most common 30-year fixed mortgage rate in the U.S., as of the week of March 26, is approximately 6.38%, and the interest rate for borrowing money against Bitcoin could be as high as nearly 8%.

On Reddit, many Americans are puzzled: if I have $200,000 worth of Bitcoin in my portfolio, how could I not gather $80,000 for a down payment? If I cannot afford the down payment, how could I possibly have money to buy Bitcoin?

Of course, there are many supportive voices; some netizens have pointed out that the high capital gains tax means that if you sell $1 million of Bitcoin, you might only net about $650,000, but using this method allows you to buy a house with leverage while continuing to hold Bitcoin, which adds another option for many people.

Though there are many supporters, the descriptions from these supporters indicate that they all appear to be at least of middle-class standing and have a relatively deep understanding of finance and taxes. This has sparked discussions about whether it is "helping the rich but not the poor."

Axios also mentioned in its report that this product is "not a broad-based first-time homebuyer product," implying that this product may provide additional help to those with certain economic strength but does not address a more practical current issue:

The mortgage default rate among low-income groups has surged significantly since the end of last year.

Many ordinary citizens have also expressed their grievances on Reddit. According to the latest report released by Cotality in February 2026, the national mortgage default rate (overdue for more than 30 days) in the U.S. remained at 3.2% in December 2025, the same as in December 2024. Federal Reserve data shows that the default rate for single-family residential mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 1.78%.

However, the data for FHA loans (government-guaranteed loan programs established to assist low- and middle-income individuals and first-time homebuyers in purchasing homes) is drastically different. In the third quarter of 2025, the FHA loan default rate reached 10.78%, an increase of 21 basis points from the previous quarter, with the serious default rate increasing by nearly 50 basis points year-on-year. Furthermore, the overdue rate for FHA loans has exceeded 11%, accounting for 52% of all seriously delinquent loans.

The criticism centers on whether Fannie Mae is trying to cover up the spreading risk with a greater risk?

As early as mid-2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to study whether to include cryptocurrency assets in loan approval considerations. At that time, many scholars in the financial industry expressed opposition, with the core concern being that loosening standards seems eerily reminiscent of the conditions preceding the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.

In the U.S., paying off a loan early after taking out a mortgage incurs a painful prepayment penalty, which means that if you want to take a loan, you need to lock your Bitcoin long-term. If you only have 5 Bitcoins and need to mortgage all of them to buy a house, and then cannot touch them for 30 years, your willingness to do so is likely low; however, if you have 200 Bitcoins, it seems much more reasonable to mortgage 50 or even 100 Bitcoins to improve your living environment, as you would surely plan to hold for the long term and would not sell regardless.

For wealthier individuals with more substantial cash flow, the ability to use Bitcoin as collateral for purchasing a home provides leverage without disrupting their investment portfolio, or it may simply serve as an asset exchange capability. But what the poor do not understand is why you think I can't afford to buy a house because I bought Bitcoin?

Integrating Bitcoin into the complex traditional financial system is a field worth exploring but fraught with unknown risks. Borrowing the jest of a Reddit user, when Bitcoin really becomes "too big to fail," could it be the spark that ignites the next crisis?

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