Milo, a fintech startup based in Miami, is introducing the world’s first “crypto mortgage,” or so it claims. With this digital bank, crypto investors living in the US can use their digital assets as leverage to buy housing or real estate. At this time, only Bitcoin holders who are willing to leverage their BTC as collateral can qualify for the startup’s innovative 30-year mortgage loan.
According to Milo’s announcement:
At this time, Milo is already beginning to approve some loans, thanks to its ongoing early-access stage. The company expects that the service will be open to most applicants on the waiting list within the next few months. However, Milo didn’t mention any specifics regarding how much BTC applicants will need to guarantee a loan. It also remains unclear what level of over-collateralization is needed to counterbalance the volatility of the digital asset.
Milo CEO and founder Josip Rupena shared that the idea for this crypto-mortgage service came after reading so many stories of people withdrawing their BTC to buy property, only to find that the coin’s value increased later on.
Milo has other mortgage solutions for foreign nationals. According to the company, this service has already had loans worth millions of dollars, not to mention that it has seen applicants from more than 63 countries.
Customers who aren’t based in the United States can close their housing loans online through this mortgage solution. In other words, they don’t need to go to the US embassy or travel to the country. According to Miami’s pro-crypto mayor, Francis Suarez, Milo’s crypto mortgage system is a “groundbreaking achievement.” And he believes that services like it are advancing the dominance of the United States in the ecosystem.
That said, Milo isn’t the first company to consider incorporating crypto in real estate. United Wholesale Mortgage began to dip its toes into crypto mortgage repayments with ETH and BTC back in August 2021. However, the company decided not to push through with its ideas due to regulatory uncertainty.
