Crypto investor scores California home with zero downpayment

When I first spoke with this client, he and his wife had already done the hard part. Both were full-time W-2 employees and had built a substantial crypto portfolio, worth over $6 million. Most of it was in Bitcoin, accumulated from years of early adoption and holding through market cycles.

They had their sights set on a single-family home in California, valued at $2.95 million. The property was a perfect fit. The problem was getting a lender to see them as qualified buyers.

Although they were asset-rich, they didn’t meet traditional mortgage guidelines. Their income wasn’t enough to carry two properties at once. Lenders use a formula called debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, to measure how much of a borrower's income goes toward monthly debt obligations. Because they still owned their primary home, their DTI exceeded the threshold most banks would accept.

They also had no interest in selling their Bitcoin to make the deal work.

That’s when they came to us.

Most lenders don’t count crypto toward reserves. In the mortgage world, reserves refer to how many months of mortgage payments you have in the bank after closing. It's a requirement that exists to prove you can weather short-term financial setbacks. However, reserves typically have to be in cash or cash equivalents, not digital assets.

What made this deal different was our ability to recognize crypto as part of the client’s financial strength. We didn’t require liquidation, and we didn’t use income to qualify them. Instead, we built the loan around their Bitcoin.

They pledged enough Bitcoin to fully collateralize the loan at a 1:1 ratio with the $2.95 million purchase price. This allowed us to structure a 100% loan-to-value crypto mortgage. There was no cash down payment, income documentation, or reserve requirement in fiat. The pledged crypto acted as collateral, giving them access to financing without compromising their portfolio.

The result was straightforward. The client kept his Bitcoin. He closed on the California home without selling a single token or touching cash reserves. And the entire process happened without the usual roadblocks that come with traditional mortgage underwriting.

This wasn’t just a creative financing solution. It was a demonstration of how crypto wealth can be used strategically, especially when traditional financial institutions aren’t built to accommodate it.

The opinions expressed in the Blog are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.