USA: Bitcoin & Co. to be accepted as collateral for mortgages
In the USA, leading mortgage banks are under government supervision. It wants to oblige Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept bitcoins as collateral.
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The US government wants to ensure that assets in Bitcoin & Co. can be accepted as collateral for a mortgage when buying a house in the future. This was announced by the head of the responsible supervisory authority on the short message service X. There, he issued an order to the US mortgage banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under state control since the 2008 financial crisis, to prepare for the inclusion of cryptocurrency in their risk assessment. If the banks implement this, it will mean even further integration of cryptocurrencies into the traditional financial system.
From Bitcoin opponent to fan
As William Pule from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) writes in the ruling, cryptocurrency balances in the US have not typically been accepted as collateral for a mortgage unless exchanged for US dollars. Among other things, this is due to the immense exchange rate fluctuations that are common there, uncertainties regarding regulation and the difficulty of easily verifying the size of such a credit balance. This is set to change, but banks will only accept cryptocurrency that is held by financial institutions under US supervision. According to CNN, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee more than half of all mortgages in the US.
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With this move, the new administration of US President Donald Trump is once again highlighting its completely different approach to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin & Co. Trump, who was still a critic of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in his first term in office and feared for the supremacy of the US dollar, changed his stance during the election campaign. In return, his election campaign has received millions in donations from the industry, which is hoping for much more freedom from the new government. Candidates for the US Congress were also supported, with the aim of incorporating the industry's wishes into legislation.
(mho)
