Bitcoin dropped below $67,000 overnight following a report from Axios that the Pentagon is actively preparing plans for a significant military strike on Iran, potentially including ground forces and a large-scale bombing campaign. President Trump posted on Truth Social that he is extending a military pause to ten days, citing diplomatic talks he described as progressing well. The announcement triggered a brief price rebound before markets resumed their decline. Friday now brings three simultaneous pressure points within a 24-hour window: a $15 billion options expiry on Deribit at 8am UTC, the release of PCE inflation data, and the expiration of Trump’s original diplomatic window with Iran.
Coinbase and Better Home & Finance have launched what they describe as the first Fannie Mae-conforming mortgage product that allows borrowers to use Bitcoin or USDC as down payment collateral without selling their holdings. The structure involves a standard conforming primary mortgage alongside a separate, overcollateralized loan that funds the down payment. The product carries no margin calls and no forced liquidation triggered by price declines alone. This development marks a formal recognition of Bitcoin as a legitimate asset within the $12 trillion US residential mortgage market.
Under the product’s mechanics, a buyer purchasing a $500,000 home requiring a $100,000 down payment could pledge $250,000 in Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime custody, receive a $100,000 loan against that collateral, and apply it toward a conventional $400,000 Fannie Mae mortgage. The Bitcoin is not sold, meaning no taxable event is triggered, and it is returned once the loan is repaid or refinanced. Interest rates on the product run 0.5% to 1% higher than standard mortgage rates. Liquidation is only triggered after a 60-day payment delinquency, consistent with conventional mortgage terms.
Bitcoin miner and AI infrastructure company MARA sold 15,133 BTC between March 4 and March 25, generating approximately $1.1 billion in proceeds. The company used those funds to repurchase roughly $1 billion of its own convertible notes at a 9% discount, capturing an estimated $88 million in value. The move has drawn concern from Bitcoin advocates on two fronts, given the scale of the sell-off and the company’s shift away from a pure Bitcoin accumulation strategy.
Crypto policy organization Coin Center says developers of crypto privacy tools remain in a precarious legal position despite the current administration’s broadly pro-crypto stance. The Department of Justice continues to prosecute Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm and the developers of Samourai Wallet as unlicensed money transmitters, even as the Trump administration has dropped enforcement actions against exchanges and reversed several Biden-era crypto policies. A House version of the Clarity Act included explicit protections for developers that would have addressed these prosecutions, but the Senate allowed those provisions to lapse. If the Clarity Act passes without those developer shields, privacy infrastructure builders in the US face significant legal exposure.
Strategy‘s CEO disclosed Thursday that retail investors hold 80% of the company’s preferred stock product STRC, compared to 40% of MSTR common stock. At a $5 billion market cap, that translates to approximately $4 billion of retail capital invested in the 11.5% annual dividend instrument, which is engineered to trade near its $100 par value. Strategy has raised $1.5 billion through STRC in the current month alone. The product is available on platforms including Robinhood, Kraken, and Webull, which are commonly used by retail investors.
Analyst Mark Palmer of Benchmark-StoneX noted the retail-heavy ownership makes sense from a risk-adjusted perspective, as institutional investors tend to favor MSTR for its liquidity and asymmetric upside potential, while retail participants are more accustomed to yield-oriented products. STRC fits that framework. The product has also begun appearing on the balance sheets of other Bitcoin treasury firms as a reserve asset, suggesting its role extends beyond a purely consumer-facing instrument.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
