WASHINGTON —The head of the federal government agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac wants the mortgage giants to consider accepting a homebuyer's cryptocurrency holdings in their criteria for buying mortgages from banks.

William Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, ordered the agencies to prepare a proposal for consideration of crypto as an asset for reserves when they assess risks in single-family home loans.

Pulte also instructed the agencies that their mortgage risk assessments should not require cryptocurrency assets to be converted to U.S. dollars. And only crypto assets that “can be evidenced and stored on a U.S.-regulated centralized exchange subject to all applicable laws” are to be considered by the agencies in their proposal, Pulte wrote in a written order, effective immediately..

Use of cryptocurrency for buying a home has been generally limited. Among the respondents in a National Association of Realtors® survey of people who bought a home between July 2023 and June 2024, only 1% of those who made a down payment said they used proceeds from the sale of crypto.

Banks seeking to make mortgages that qualify for purchase by Fannie and Freddie have not typically considered a borrower’s crypto holdings until they were sold, or converted, to dollars.

“This is a big win for advocates of cryptocurrencies who want crypto to be treated the same way as other assets are," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Currently, stock investments are treated as qualifying assets that count toward reserves that banks want borrowers to have. But assets that are more volatile, like individual stocks or crypto, may be discounted by lenders, Fairweather noted.

“As long as lenders are appropriately discounting crypto based on volatility, it’s fine that crypto investments count toward reserves,” she said.

The policy change is meant to encourage banks to expand how they gauge borrowers’ creditworthiness, in hopes that more aspiring homebuyers can qualify for a home loan. It also recognizes that cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity as an alternative to traditional investments, such as bonds and stocks.

The agencies have to come up with their proposals “as soon as reasonably practical,” according to the order.

Fannie and Freddie, which have been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages that meet their risk criteria from banks, which helps provide liquidity for the housing market. The two firms guarantee roughly half of the $12 trillion U.S. home loan market and are a bedrock of the U.S. economy.

“If Fannie and Freddie are going to accept cryptocurrency as collateral, that’s a strong incentive for banks to shift their practices," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Because people who might otherwise have to sell cryptocurrency to qualify — and maybe that’s a deal-breaker for them now — under this new policy, they can qualify. It sort of expands the potential pool of eligible buyers.”

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump since early 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Home sales fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. They've remained sluggish so far this year, as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices keep would-be homebuyers on the sidelines.

As of April, the U.S. housing market had nearly 34% more sellers than buyers shopping for a home, according to an analysis by Redfin.

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