In Brief:
- At the conference call regarding Q2 results, firm CEO Mat Ishbia disclosed plans to accept payment in Bitcoin this year.
- The firm first thinks to start with Bitcoin, but Ethereum and other crypto are also included.
The largest US mortgage firm, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) plans to start accepting cryptocurrency payments – likely bitcoin later this year.
According to the Detroit Free Press, this is the first major nationwide Mortgage lender to accept payment in crypto. The UWM CEO Mat Ishbia disclosed the crypto plans on 16 August in a conference call regarding the firm’s Q2 results.
“We’re excited that hopefully (this year) we can actually execute on that before anyone in country,” Mat Ishbia said.
“ I think we’re starting with Bitcoin, but we’re looking at Ethereum and others,” Ishbia said in an interview. “We’re going to walk before we run, but at the same time, we are definitely a leader in technology and innovation and we are always trying to be the best and the leader in everything we do.”
This move is likely to happen later this quarter or at the start of the fourth quarter.
He added, “That’s the plan. Obliviously there’s no guarantees – we’re still working through some details. But absolutely.”
UWM closed a total of $59.2 billion in mortgages during the Q2 firm record, up from $49.1 billion the previous quarter. Ishbia said the mortgage industry generally faced tighter margins because mortgage interest rates edged up slightly during the quarter.
