On March 26, a digital asset exchange, partnering with an online mortgage lender, announced the launch of what the companies described as the first mortgage product in the U.S. that allows borrowers to pledge crypto assets as down payment collateral while being saleable to Fannie Mae. Under the product’s structure, borrowers receive two loans at closing — a standard Fannie Mae mortgage on the home and a separate loan used to cover the down payment secured by pledged Bitcoin or USDC. The companies described the product as the “first step in integrating crypto into the core plumbing of the U.S. housing finance system,” calling it “proof” that crypto assets can interoperate with “regulated, government-backed systems.”