Better Opens Bitcoin-Backed Mortgages to Coinbase One Users as Demand Hits $260M

Bitcoin-backed mortgages are now available to qualified homebuyers in the US. 

Better Mortgage and Coinbase announced the official launch after first testing the offering with a small group of borrowers earlier in the year.

The product would allow buyers to put up Bitcoin as collateral for their down payment instead of selling their coins to raise the capital. Better handles the mortgage itself, while Coinbase will be used to hold and transfer the pledged Bitcoin.

How Bitcoin-Backed Mortgages are structured

The companies split the financing into two factions. The first is a standard mortgage built to meet Fannie Mae's conforming guidelines. The second is a smaller loan secured by the borrower's Bitcoin, which covers the cash needed for the down payment.

Both loans share the same interest rate and repayment period, and borrowers make just one monthly payment instead of two separate bills. To qualify, applicants need to pledge Bitcoin worth at least 250% of the down payment loan amount. 

For instance, an individual borrowing $10,000 for a down payment would need to post at least $25,000 worth of Bitcoin as collateral.

The borrower's coins are then moved from the Coinbase account into Better's custodial account on Coinbase Prime. Better controls that collateral for the life of the loan, and the borrower cannot trade or withdraw it during that time. The coins would be returned in full once the mortgage is paid off or refinanced.

Notably, this offering does not affect borrowers when Bitcoin price drops. A decline in value will not trigger a margin call or change the loan terms. The major risk comes from people missing their payments. Better can liquidate the pledged coins if a borrower falls 60 days behind on payments.

Waitlist demand pushed the offering for general use

Interest in the product peaked quickly. Better said 76% of people who joined its waitlist in June were already Coinbase One members, and 60% of them planned to buy a home within six months. Numerically, the waitlist responses suggested that over $260 million in loan volume could potentially come in.

Ziggy Jonsson, Better Mortgage's chief technology officer, said this expansion tells the story of how the younger generation of buyers is building wealth. 

"By allowing Coinbase One members to pledge crypto as collateral without selling their holdings, we're opening a new path toward homeownership for a generation of borrowers whose wealth increasingly lives onchain." 

Additionally, Coinbase One members approved for financing also qualify for a rebate equal to 1% of the mortgage value, capped at $10,000. The companies have also extended the same rebate offer to Better's regular mortgages, home equity lines of credit, and refinancing products.

Crypto-backed mortgages are now a thing

Better and Coinbase funded their first Fannie Mae-backed mortgage using Bitcoin as collateral back in June. A married couple in Michigan pledged their BTC to cover a down payment. That deal was the first proof that this arrangement could work.

Crypto lender Ledn published a research note projecting that the crypto-lending market could grow from $3 billion today to $1 trillion over the next decade.

Meanwhile, regulators have been working on making this kind of lending more available. In June 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to draw up proposals factoring crypto into mortgage risk assessments.

All of this comes as US housing affordability stays stretched. The median price of a new home is at almost $400,000 in 2026. Better said, the high borrowing costs have pushed the median age of a first-time buyer up to 40 in 2025.