Borrowers in the United States can now tap their Bitcoin holdings to back a mortgage, as Better Mortgage and Coinbase expand their Bitcoin-backed loan product to all Coinbase One members.
Here’s how it works. The structure splits the home purchase into two linked loans. The primary is a standard conforming mortgage, a Fannie Mae-backed home loan, while the second is a separate loan for the down payment, secured by Bitcoin as collateral.
Borrowers need to pledge at least 2.5 times the loan amount in Bitcoin, which is then transferred into Better’s custodial account on Coinbase Prime for the duration of the loan or until refinancing.
That separation matters, a borrower’s core mortgage remains a standard conforming loan, with the crypto-backed piece sitting alongside, not inside, the main underwriting. For borrowers, the appeal is keeping their Bitcoin exposure and avoiding an immediate sale.
Better has said there are no margin calls, addressing a common pain point in other securities-backed lending. The waitlist for this product topped $260 million before launch, but what lenders and borrowers are really testing is whether volatile digital assets can support long-term credit obligations.