A quiet but meaningful shift is happening in U.S. housing finance. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start considering cryptocurrency holdings as part of mortgage loan risk assessments. For a system that has historically excluded digital assets from serious financial evaluation, this move represents a long-overdue update. Crypto is gradually intersecting more with everyday financial systems like homeownership.

The U.S. Director of Federal Housing, Willam Pulte made the order last month after careful review. He said further emphasized how this aligns with Trump´s vision ´´to make the United States the crypto capital of the world´´. As per X, 25.6.25

The details matter. Under this new guidance, digital assets won’t need to be liquidated into U.S. dollars to count toward mortgage reserves. Instead, they can be held as-is, given they’re stored on centralized exchanges that are regulated in the U.S. That distinction is important. It narrows the scope to platforms with some degree of oversight, and shows that regulators want to experiment with cryptocurrency while keeping some degree of control over where and how it’s held.

This isn’t an open invitation for all things crypto to flood the mortgage space. Risk-based adjustments will apply. That means limits on how much of someone’s crypto portfolio can be recognized, adjustments for volatility, and likely a preference for more stable assets. The proposals being developed by Fannie and Freddie must still pass internal reviews and oversight, and political scrutiny is already intensifying. Senate Democrats have started probing the FHFA for details on risk management and possible exposure.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are both U.S. government sponsored enterprises that play a crucial role in the U.S. mortgage market.

Still, the potential implications are hard to ignore. Many individuals today keep a meaningful portion of their savings in digital assets. Until now, those holdings have effectively been invisible when applying for a mortgage. The assumption was that if it’s not in a traditional bank account, it doesn’t count. This directive begins to challenge that idea.

According to the Nakamoto Project, Bitcoin alone is owned by roughly 50 million Americans.

The policy also invites a broader question: should the financial system adapt to how people store wealth, or should people conform to how the system wants them to store it? Recognizing digital assets in underwriting doesn’t mean ignoring its risks. But continuing to exclude it entirely may overlook the reality of how financial portfolios are evolving.

If implemented with appropriate guardrails, this policy could unlock access to credit for a new segment of the population without compromising the integrity of mortgage lending. It may also incentivize better risk modeling tools for digital assets (something that’s long overdue). And it could lead to more collaboration between traditional finance and digital asset platforms, which until now have largely operated in parallel.

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