Consumers will be able to use their BTC and digital asset holdings to buy real estate in the United States.
Milo, a Miami-based fintech business, is creating the world’s first “crypto mortgage.” The digital bank will enable cryptocurrency investors to use their digital assets to acquire real estate in the United States.
At the present, Milo’s 30-year mortgage loan is only available to consumers who pledge Bitcoin (BTC) as security. Customers from both the United States and outside will be able to utilise the service to acquire real estate in the United States. According to Milo’s website:
“Rather than selling your crypto to qualify for a mortgage, a crypto mortgage allows you to leverage your cryptocurrency to invest in real estate,” Milo reports that it has already issued several loans as part of its early-access phase and anticipates that the service will be accessible to the majority of applicants on its waiting list within the next few months.
It is unknown how much BTC will be required to secure a loan or the extent to which over-collateralization would be required to mitigate the digital asset’s volatility. Cointelegraph has reached out to Milo for further information and will update this article accordingly.
Milo’s CEO and Founder, Josip Rupena, said that the concept came about as a result of watching “countless anecdotes” of individuals cashing out their BTC to acquire property, only to see its value soar afterwards.
“The present methods for crypto consumers to get house credit have resulted in unanticipated tax implications associated with selling their crypto for a down payment, or worse, the opportunity cost of not seeing their crypto appreciate in value.”
Milo notes that the company’s other mortgage product for foreign nationals has already generated millions of dollars in loans and attracted applications from 63 nations. It enables clients located outside the United States to close their mortgages virtually, without the need to go to the United States or to an embassy.
On January 17, pro-crypto Miami Mayor Francis Suarez introduced Rupena at the North American Bitcoin Conference, stating that the Bitcoin mortgage is a “groundbreaking success” for expanding the United States’ supremacy in the Bitcoin ecosystem. “To become the Capital of Capital, Miami needs businesses like Milo that are eager to innovate and ideate,” he said.
Milo is not the first startup to pursue a crypto mortgage. United Wholesale Mortgage began testing the waters for crypto mortgage repayments using Ether and BTC in August 2021 as part of a trial programme. By October, however, it had abandoned such plans owing to regulatory uncertainties.
Milo secured $6 million in initial fundraising in January 2021 from investors such as QED investors, Metaprop, and 10x Capital. Rupena has worked for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, both of which are major investment banking firms.
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