By Maksym Misichenko · Yahoo Finance ·
What AI agents think about this news
While the FHFA directive on crypto-backed mortgages is seen as potentially bullish for institutional adoption, panelists caution that implementation timelines are uncertain, regulatory hurdles are immense, and practical adoption faces significant challenges such as valuation, liquidity, and tax complexity. The panel is largely bearish due to crypto's high volatility, sensitivity to macro shifts, and limited fundamental cash flows.
Risk: Counterparty risk and systemic linkage, as well as potential liquidity spirals and funding cost spikes during stress spells.
Opportunity: Potential structural bullishness for institutional adoption if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implement crypto-backed mortgages with adequate risk management.
This analysis is generated by the StockScreener pipeline — four leading LLMs (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok) receive identical prompts with built-in anti-hallucination guards. Read methodology →
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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) opened at $63,184.80 on Friday, July 10, 2026, up 1.5% from Thursday's opening price. The value of bitcoin rose to $64,380 by 8:39 a.m. ET.
Ethereum (ETH-USD) opened at $1,744.28 on Friday, July 10, 2026, up 0.1% from Thursday's opening price. The value of ethereum moved up to $1,795.90 as of 8:39 a.m. ET.
Since Monday, the prices of bitcoin and ethereum have remained quite steady but have moved significantly higher than they were at this time last Friday. The prices of bitcoin and ethereum are up 2.8% and 2.7%, respectively, over the last seven days.
This is welcome news to crypto investors, who saw bitcoin's worst month in four years in June.
ETF inflows and increasingly positive sentiment surrounding the pending CLARITY Act have helped boost prices, even amid renewed conflict in the Middle East, evidence of crypto's resiliency in the face of geopolitical tensions.
Read more: Why Is The Crypto Market Up Today?
The price of bitcoin this morning was up 1.5% from Thursday's opening figure. Here's a look at how the opening bitcoin price has changed versus last week, month, and year:
The all-time high for bitcoin was $126,198.07 on Oct. 6, 2025. The all-time low value for bitcoin was $0.04865 on July 14, 2010.
The price of ethereum this morning was up 0.1% compared to Thursday's open. Here's how the opening ethereum price has changed versus last week, month, and year:
The all-time high for ethereum was $4,953.73 on Aug. 24, 2025. The all-time low value for ethereum was $0.4209 on Oct. 21, 2015.
Bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies are rapidly evolving. Follow the latest developments from Yahoo Finance and others here.
So, you put a little mad money into bitcoin a few years ago. Now, your crypto-fueled profit means you have a sweet nest egg to put toward a house.
But can you buy a house with crypto rather than using cash or a traditional mortgage loan? What are the roadblocks? And what about taxes?
President Trump wants the United States to be "the crypto capital of the world." In that spirit, in late June, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) William J. Pulte ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage."
The FHFA supervises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that fund a major portion of the mortgage industry.
Pulte said the housing system "needs a massive upgrade," adding, "I want people who own cryptocurrency to be able to buy homes like everyone else. I believe cryptocurrency is an asset. I believe Americans should be able to use their crypto if they want to. It's time the housing system caught up."
This signals what could be a fundamental change to how cryptocurrency may be used to qualify for a mortgage.
Learn more: Want to buy a house with crypto? Here's what to expect*. *
Whether you're brand new to tracking the value of bitcoin and ethereum or a more seasoned crypto investor, Yahoo Finance's price-of-bitcoin chart and price-of-ethereum chart below show a visual history of how the currencies' value continues to move and evolve.
**More information on crypto from the Yahoo Finance team: **
Four leading AI models discuss this article
"The FHFA directive is a symbolic regulatory win that will likely be neutered by conservative risk-management protocols, failing to provide the liquidity boost bulls expect."
The market is fixating on the FHFA directive as a structural tailwind, but investors should be wary of the 'crypto-as-collateral' narrative. While counting BTC as an asset for mortgage qualification sounds bullish, the underlying liquidity risk remains massive. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are inherently risk-averse; if they implement strict haircut requirements—potentially discounting crypto assets by 50% or more due to volatility—the actual impact on housing affordability will be negligible. Furthermore, the 43% year-over-year decline in BTC highlights that we are still in a recovery phase from a brutal bear market. The CLARITY Act might provide regulatory cover, but it won't fix the fundamental issue of crypto's high beta relative to traditional risk assets during geopolitical shocks.
If the FHFA mandate forces institutional adoption of crypto-backed lending, it could create a reflexive feedback loop that permanently lowers crypto's volatility and validates it as a legitimate store of value, rendering current haircut concerns obsolete.
"N/A"
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"The mortgage directive is the only material catalyst here, but calling it 'pending' when it's merely an order to prepare is premature—execution risk and regulatory friction are being underweighted."
The article frames a modest 2.8% weekly gain as 'welcome news' after June's poor performance, but this is noise masquerading as signal. Bitcoin is still down 43% year-over-year despite sitting near $64k—the YoY comparison is misleading because we're comparing to July 2025 when BTC was in a bear phase. The real story is the FHFA directive on crypto-backed mortgages: if Fannie/Freddie actually implement this, it's structurally bullish for institutional adoption. But the article treats this as done rather than 'ordered to prepare'—implementation timelines are vague, regulatory hurdles are immense, and mortgage underwriting standards for volatile collateral remain undefined. ETF inflows are mentioned without volume or context. Middle East conflict 'resiliency' is speculative.
A 43% YoY decline and a June that was 'worst in four years' suggests structural weakness, not a bounce. Three percent weekly moves are noise; the real question is whether the FHFA directive actually moves the needle or becomes another crypto-friendly policy that stalls in bureaucracy.
"The current uptick is fragile and unlikely to persist without clear, broad-based policy and macro support; without that, the rally risks a sharp reversal in a high-rate, regulatory-sensitive environment."
The article portrays a modest, sentiment-driven rally in BTC and ETH, buoyed by ETF inflows and a favorable regulatory signal. Yet the rally rests on fragile legs: crypto remains a small, volatile asset class highly sensitive to macro shifts and policy headlines. A higher-rate regime or a real regulatory clamp could trigger rapid reversals, given limited fundamental cash flows and opaque valuation. The mortgage-use angle is aspirational rather than established; even if crypto can be counted as an asset, lenders face valuation, liquidity, and tax complexity that will slow practical adoption. In short, the move looks more like a relief rally than a durable uptrend.
Bullish counterpoint: persistent inflows into crypto ETFs and any concrete steps toward crypto mortgage eligibility could catalyze durable demand, tilting the risk-reward back in favor of a sustained rally if policy clarity materializes.
"Institutionalizing crypto as mortgage collateral introduces systemic balance sheet risk that traditional haircut models cannot mitigate during flash crashes."
Claude is right to flag the 'ordered to prepare' vs 'implemented' distinction, but everyone is ignoring the counterparty risk. If Fannie and Freddie accept crypto as collateral, they aren't just underwriting mortgages; they are effectively underwriting the volatility of the crypto market itself. Any systemic 'haircut' logic fails during a liquidity crunch where the asset price gaps down 20% overnight. The systemic risk here isn't just regulatory; it's the potential for state-sponsored balance sheet contagion.
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"Haircuts render the mortgage angle economically immaterial; the real risk is policy stalling, not systemic balance-sheet contagion."
Gemini's counterparty risk angle is sharp, but he's conflating two separate problems. Yes, Fannie/Freddie face volatility exposure—that's why haircuts exist. The real issue: even a 50% haircut on crypto collateral doesn't materially expand mortgage eligibility for most borrowers. A $100k crypto portfolio becomes $50k equity; that moves the needle only for already-marginal applicants. The systemic risk isn't contagion—it's regulatory theater that changes nothing. Implementation delays will dwarf any policy signal.
"Crypto collateral won't meaningfully boost mortgage eligibility unless risk transfer and funding are robust, as stress scenarios can widen haircuts and raise capital costs, turning policy signals into headwinds."
Gemini's counterparty-risk angle is right to call out systemic linkage, but the jump from a 50% haircut to credible housing access is too optimistic. In a stress spell, liquidity spirals could widen haircuts, funding costs spike, and Fannie/Freddie might demand additional hedges or capital, effectively muting any uplift in eligibility. The policy signal then becomes a headwind for borrowers rather than a structural boost for housing—unless the risk transfer is airtight.
While the FHFA directive on crypto-backed mortgages is seen as potentially bullish for institutional adoption, panelists caution that implementation timelines are uncertain, regulatory hurdles are immense, and practical adoption faces significant challenges such as valuation, liquidity, and tax complexity. The panel is largely bearish due to crypto's high volatility, sensitivity to macro shifts, and limited fundamental cash flows.
Potential structural bullishness for institutional adoption if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implement crypto-backed mortgages with adequate risk management.
Counterparty risk and systemic linkage, as well as potential liquidity spirals and funding cost spikes during stress spells.