Rate will consider crypto, stablecoins in underwriting

Retail giant Rate is embracing cryptocurrency and stablecoins for prospective home buyers, who accumulated wealth in the digital assets. 

The Chicago-based lender is rolling out RateFi, a product allowing buyers to access purchase, refinance, second-home and investment property loans, without liquidating their crypto or stablecoin. The offering is Rate's first step in a broader digital asset lending roadmap, it said. 

"Digital assets are real assets, yet mortgage lending has treated them as invisible. RateFi changes that," said Kate Amor, executive vice president and head of enterprise products at Rate, in a press release. 

The lender will apply standard anti-money laundering and know-your-customer verification processes to the loans. Down payments and closing costs still need to be paid in U.S. currency, but borrowers can liquidate their digital assets for the costs, the company explained. 

The announcement follows other nonbank mortgage lenders who started accepting crypto in recent months, including Newrez. Mortgage adoption has gone back even further, as Florida-based fintech Milo reported over $100 million in originations for their loans dual collateralized by a borrower's property and digital assets since 2022. 

The Trump Administration has also been bullish on digital currencies, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte last summer urged the government-sponsored enterprises to formally consider crypto as an asset. 

Rate said it's seeking to address the more than 10% of Americans who hold digital assets, many with six- and seven-figure portfolios. RateFi follows other product releases from the company which is expanding its billion-dollar non-qualified mortgage origination efforts. 

The announcement also comes on the heels of a crypto crash, as the price nosedived from approximately $125,000 to around $64,000 as of Monday afternoon. Although the sharp movement erased over $800 billion in bitcoin market capitalization, some experts have described the market as cyclical.