Milo Lending

Milo Lending – Overview

Buying a house usually means either having a pile of cash sitting around or selling off other assets to get there. Milo Lending was built for people who’d rather not do either with their crypto. Founded in 2019, it’s carved out a niche as one of the only US mortgage lenders that actually lets Bitcoin and Ethereum count as real collateral for a genuine, licensed home loan, not some crypto-adjacent workaround.

The core idea is straightforward. Pledge crypto worth the same amount as your mortgage, and Milo will finance up to 100% of the purchase price, no cash down payment needed. Put up $500,000 in BTC or ETH, and that can secure a $500,000 mortgage. If you’d rather not pledge quite that much, you can also mix in a fiat down payment alongside a smaller crypto pledge, which lowers your monthly payments and reduces how much crypto you need to lock up.

For anyone uneasy about handing over custody entirely, Milo also offers a Self-Custody Mortgage. Here, your crypto stays in your own wallet the whole time, functioning more as reserves that strengthen your loan application rather than literal pledged collateral, while you cover the down payment in fiat. The tradeoff is worth knowing: you’ll need more fiat upfront with this option, but your BTC or ETH can never be liquidated no matter what the market does, since it was never actually put up as collateral in the first place.

Custody on the standard mortgage product runs through Coinbase and BitGo, both regulated custodians holding assets in segregated cold storage, and Milo Lending is explicit that pledged crypto is never rehypothecated or lent out elsewhere while it’s backing your loan. The company also holds a SOC 2 Type II security certification and is licensed across 11 US states.

Rates on Milo’s mortgages run as 30-year fixed products, which is unusual in crypto lending where most competitors stick to short-term loans measured in months rather than decades. Reported rates have hovered around 7% on average across the mortgage portfolio, with the broader crypto loan business (used for things like additional Bitcoin purchases, land, renovations, or business investments) starting a bit higher, closer to 8.25%. Loan sizes go all the way up to $25 million, and refinancing an existing mortgage with crypto collateral is supported too.

If the market does turn against a pledged position, Milo relies on continuous collateral monitoring and a defined margin call process, giving borrowers a chance to add more collateral or pay down the loan balance before anything gets liquidated, rather than triggering an automatic sale the moment prices dip. Support is described as white-glove, aimed at walking borrowers through what’s still a fairly novel way to finance a home.