Weekly Real Estate News
The decision by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte to explore the viability of incorporating cryptocurrencies into the secondary mortgage market received a major vote of approval from high-profile investor Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest.
Last week, Pulte took to X to announce that he was directing the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) “to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage.” Wood weighed in on X this weekend, declaring, “@Pulte’s directive could bolster both crypto and housing significantly. I do not believe that the ramifications of this move are well-understood.”
Wood also shared a link to an analysis of Pulte’s directive on her company’s ARK Disrupt newsletter, which noted that Pulte’s action “introduces a novel bridge between blockchain-based capital and the $12 trillion US mortgage market. Should the FHFA finalize this rule, setting the precedent for wider adoption across mortgages and cryptoassets, blockchain-native balance sheets could impact the mortgage market significantly by streamlining underwriting, lowering transaction costs, and enabling token-linked mortgage instruments.”
Wood has been a vocal advocate of cryptocurrency, going so far as to predict in a CNBC interview that Bitcoin will increase at least 580% of its current value by 2030. “We have always had a 2030 target, the base case in the $700,000 to $750,000 range, the bull case in the $1.5 million range,” she said.
Photo: Caroline Wood / Wikimedia Commons
