Coinbase Launches Token-Backed Mortgages, Bybit Lists Western Union USDPT, Crypto Donors Pour $9.4M Into Reform UK

Crypto News

Coinbase and Better Home & Finance will let qualified borrowers pledge digital assets as collateral for Fannie Mae-backed mortgages beginning summer 2026, marking one of the deepest links yet between traditional housing finance and crypto-native wealth. Under the program, applicants can post Bitcoin or USDC to cover down payments without first liquidating into fiat. The rollout follows a June 2025 directive from the Federal Housing Finance Agency instructing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to weigh crypto holdings in mortgage risk assessments. Lenders including Newrez have already opened similar pathways, signaling that digital-asset collateralization is moving from pilot stage into mainstream underwriting workflows for U.S. homebuyers this cycle.

Fidelity has slashed the entry threshold for SpaceX's upcoming IPO from as much as $500,000 down to $2,000, erasing roughly 99.6% of the prior barrier and opening the year's largest stock debut to retail brokerage clients. SpaceX reserved up to 30% of the offering for retail participants and plans to sell about 555.6 million shares at $135 each, targeting a raise of up to $85.7 billion with underwriter options exercised. The Nasdaq debut under ticker SPCX is set for June 12. Strict anti-flipping rules under FINRA Rule 5131 still apply, meaning sales within 30 days can permanently lock investors out of future allocations.

The first week of June split the DeFi landscape sharply, with Hyperliquid emerging as the standout performer. HYPE rose roughly 17% on the week and 51% over the past month, even after an 8% pullback in the last 24 hours, supported by $24.4 million in fresh whale wallet inflows running 3.4 times normal pace. Total value locked climbed from $5.52 billion in late May to $5.88 billion. Aerodrome, the largest decentralized exchange on Base, moved in the opposite direction, falling about 22% over the month as TVL drained from $501 million in January to $312 million amid rising exchange deposits and mounting sell pressure.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould pushed back forcefully at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, telling lawmakers that the only political pressure his agency faces over a national trust-bank charter for World Liberty Financial comes from Democrats, not the White House. Representative Gregory Meeks pressed Gould on whether he was acting as a Trump fixer, prompting the regulator to call the line of questioning unprecedented. Democrats continue to flag the firm's foreign-investor ties and prior partnerships with sanctioned entities. The hearing also addressed GENIUS Act implementation, with FDIC Chairman Travis Hill signaling an upcoming rule requiring customer identification programs for stablecoin issuers under federal supervision.

Bybit became the first major crypto exchange to support Western Union's USDPT stablecoin, extending the payment giant's dollar-pegged token into spot trading, transfers, and holding services. Issued by Western Union Digital and backed by reserves at Anchorage Digital Bank, USDPT launched in May on the Solana blockchain and was designed to align with GENIUS Act payment-stablecoin standards. The listing arrives as dollar-pegged stablecoin supply nears $320 billion globally. MoneyGram recently debuted MGUSD on Stellar, while Mastercard expanded settlement support for USDC, PYUSD, and RLUSD. Visa's stablecoin settlement pilot has reached a $7 billion annualized run rate, underscoring the accelerating institutional embrace.

Nigel Farage's Reform UK collected roughly $9.4 million from two crypto billionaires in the first quarter of 2026, a haul that exceeded total donations received by either the Conservative or Labour parties. Tether shareholder Christopher Harborne, ranked Britain's sixth-richest person, contributed £3 million in January, while BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo gave £4 million across two payments. Together their donations amounted to 28% of all UK political donations in the quarter. Delo received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump last year following his 2022 Bank Secrecy Act guilty plea. The contributions arrived amid a UK moratorium on direct crypto-denominated political donations following the Rycroft review.

Across this week's developments, a single thematic arc emerges: crypto is rapidly embedding itself into the institutional plumbing of housing, payments, equity markets, and politics, while regulators race to define the boundaries. From Fannie Mae-backed token mortgages to Western Union's stablecoin listing and Senate Republicans pushing for revised bank capital rules on digital assets, the integration is structural rather than speculative. JPMorgan analysts warn the Clarity Act's legislative window is narrowing ahead of midterms, leaving the stablecoin yield debate unresolved. The dominant narrative is no longer adoption but absorption — traditional finance, political fundraising, and consumer credit now operate with crypto rails as a permanent feature rather than a passing experiment.