Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike, says that "broken money" is to blame for the U.S. housing affordability crisis and that Bitcoin might help turn things around.
On August 25, Mallers wrote that 70% of Americans can't afford a home at the median price because they have had to utilize homeownership as a way to save money.
He added, "Houses aren't savings accounts, they're meant to be lived in." He added that Bitcoin could potentially "demonetize" housing, lower prices, and put people back into homes.
Mallers is not wrong. New research into the housing market sheds new light on the extremity of this problem.
Published in February 2025, a report by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) notes that 74.9% of U.S. households – approximately 100.6 million families – are unable to afford a new median-priced home, which the NAHB pegged at $459,826 with a 6.5% rate on a 30-year mortgage.
The report also shows how sensitive the market is: every $1,000 increase in home prices pushes about 115,000 families out of the market, while a small 0.25% rise in mortgage rates prices out another 1.1 million households.
Simply put, in high-cost states like Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, more than 85% of households are eliminated as potential buyers for median new homes.
Jack Mallers is the CEO and founder of Strike, a Bitcoin-focused payments company that aims to revolutionize the way people send and receive money—especially across borders—by using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Mallers is widely known in the crypto world for being an outspoken Bitcoin maximalist—someone who believes Bitcoin is the most important and valuable digital asset, often to the exclusion of others. He's not just a fan of Bitcoin; he's built his business and advocacy around it.
Policy to assess crypto for mortgage
However, with President Donald Trump now in office, policy is catching up to bring crypto to the forefront.
On June 25, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) instructed the government-subsidized wings for housing affordability Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), to develop proposals incorporating cryptocurrency reserves (held on U.S.-regulated exchanges) into their mortgage risk models.
The proposal to be created would allow verified cryptocurrency assets to be counted towards a borrower's reserves without the need to convert to dollars for cost floating purposes, although it would still be at risk-based discounts under other allowances.
FHFA Director William J. Pulte commented that the proposal could help establish a wider scope of criteria for non-packaged sustainable homeownership.
He said :
"After significant studying, and in keeping with President Trump's vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, today I ordered the Great Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage."
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
