- The US housing market is the economy's backbone.
- Crypto volatility could increase mortgage risk, analysts say.
- US housing officials are proposing a new role for Bitcoin and its ilk.
A version of this story appeared in our The Guidance newsletter on June 30. Sign up here.
Hi! Ed here.
Before last week, it’s safe to say few in crypto had ever heard of William Pulte. But now the onetime housing industry investor has become a hot topic in digital assets.
On June 25, Pulte, the director of US Federal Housing Finance Agency, said the two government-sponsored mortgage guarantors — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are poised to permit cryptocurrencies to be used as criteria in assessing the risk of home buyers.
“Today I ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage,” Pulte posted on X.
In other words, if a prospective buyer is sitting on a bunch of Bitcoin, that should be counted as an asset and potentially improve their chances of approval.
The move, of course, is consistent with Donald Trump’s embrace of the crypto industry as a new fixture in finance.
The US president, who is personally profiting from a raft of Trump-branded crypto businesses, has vowed to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”
Yet Pulte’s decision raises the stakes considerably.
Unlike a Bitcoin strategic reserve or even stablecoin legislation, modifying asset criteria in the housing market goes right to the heart of the US economy.
The US housing market is worth $50 trillion, which is about the same as the combined GDP of the US, China, and Germany. Americans’ homes are their No. 1 source of wealth.
In addition, home loans comprise more than $11 trillion in mortgage-backed bonds, which are a massive market for investors.
Messing with the calculus of risk in the housing market is itself a rather risky proposition. The global financial crash of 2008, after all, was triggered by Wall Street’s disregard for the perils of subprime mortgages, and Washington’s failure to watchdog the market.
It’s little wonder then that Pulte’s embrace of cryptocurrencies, one of the most volatile asset classes on the planet, raised alarms among analysts.
“Price volatility, custody security, and regulatory clarity are non-negotiables,” Lamine Brahimi, a co-founder of Taurus, a digital asset custody firm, told DL News’ Tim Craig.
Ever since Fannie Mae was founded during the Great Depression in 1938, the government has played a vital role in steadying the mortgage market by acquiring mortgage bonds.
Messing with this carefully calibrated system, which is driven by trust as much as mathematical risk-reward ratios, is definitely cause for concern, Sean Tuffy, a financial regulation expert, told DL News last week.
“A lot will depend on what the actual crypto underwriting guidance looks like.”
To be sure, Pulte directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “prepare a proposal” for the consideration of cryptocurrencies, so this could very well turn out to be nothing but a trial balloon.
Still, just raising the possibility of changing the risk metrics of the mortgage market is bound to roil banks, home builders, insurers, and of course, home buyers themselves.
If nothing else, everyone in crypto will now know who Pulte is.
ICYMI
- Ripple drops appeal to ‘close the chapter’ on SEC suit, XRP price ticks higherFirst, Judge Analisa Torres rejected Ripple’s, and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s joint request to dissolve the firm’s permanent injunction and cut its penalty to $50 million. One day later, Ripple dropped its appeal and accepted a $125 million fine.
- Trump administration’s nod to crypto-backed mortgages raises alarms and applause in ‘defining moment’“There’s definitely reasons to be concerned”,” Sean Tuffy, a financial regulation expert, told DL News about Pulte’s ploy for mortgages to be backed by cryptocurrencies.
- Hackers already bagged a record $2.1bn in stolen crypto this year, says TRM LabsDespite money spent on audits, war rooms, and white-hat bounties, cybercriminals still ransacked the crypto industry for $2.1 billion in the first half of 2025.
Story of the Week
Monero-only hacker IntelBroker caught after accepting Bitcoin from FBI
US authorities have arrested a British cybercrime suspect accused of selling stolen data from major US firms — by convincing him to accept payment in Bitcoin.
Post of the Week
Judge Torres’ rejection of Ripple and the SEC’s attempt to lower the fine spurred some saucy comments from those in the regulatory community who are less than pleased about the agency’s more pro-crypto bent under new Chair Paul Atkins.
“The SEC made the unprecedented decision to reverse course on pending litigation. And today their leadership got a taste of what their hubris, incompetence, and crypto fealty results in.”
Corey Frayer, former senior adviser at the SEC.
Edward Robinson is the story editor for DL News. Contact the author at ed@dlnews.com.
