American Borrowers Can Now Use Crypto Mortgages to Buy Home

 

USDC.homes, a new decentralized finance (DeFi) project, is offering US homebuyers DeFi mortgages, enabling users to purchase homes using crypto without having to first liquidate it. 

The project currently allows Texas residents to secure crypto mortgages but plans to expand its offering to other states “soon” as well.

The project offers both unsecured and secured lending options, allowing users to secure crypto mortgages using their bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), USD coin (USDC) stablecoin, and other popular cryptoassets as collateral.

Homebuyers can borrow up to USD 5m using USDC.homes, which comes at a 5.5% interest rate and requires a 20% down payment. 

While all transactions are processed on-chain, borrowers can include off-chain data such as their credit score when applying.

USDC.homes is built on the Teller protocol, a DeFi project designed to allow lending and borrowing of blockchain assets.

Ryan Berkun, founder and CEO of Teller, argued that,

“USDC.Homes empowers potential home buyers to leverage their digital asset holdings to access a mortgage, opening up the doors for crypto-natives that have historically been locked out of the traditional mortgage lending process.” 

USDC.homes has already issued its first crypto loan to a Texas resident, who used the USD 500,000 loan to purchase a condo valued at USD 680,000. The loan was unsecured and was granted based on the borrower’s credit score.

Using crypto mortgages offers a number of advantages for crypto users. In the first place, they won’t have to liquidate their holdings which prevents them from possible damages from taxation, fees, and a loss of position.

Moreover, borrowers’ down payments are not sold, rather they are staked, and the proceeds can be used to help homeowners pay off their loans.

“Borrowers can also earn interest on their down payment by putting their assets to work through staking or other yield-generating activities, and in turn utilize their passive crypto income to pay down the mortgage,” Teller said on Twitter. 

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