During a quarterly earnings call late Monday afternoon the United Wholesale Mortgage CEO, Mat Ishiba, said that the company would begin accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies before the end of the year.
Don’t miss out on how smart money is playing the crypto game. Subscribe to our premium newsletter – Crypto Investor.
“We’ve evaluated the feasibility, and we’re looking forward to being the first mortgage company in America to accept cryptocurrency to satisfy mortgage payments,” said Ishiba “That’s something that we’ve been working on, and we’re excited that hopefully, in Q3, we can actually execute on that before anyone in the country because we are a leader in technology and innovation.”
Ishiba later expanded on what he said during the call with the Detroit Free Press saying that the company will start off with Bitcoin but then expand to other cryptos like Ethereum and potentially more.
“I think we’re starting with Bitcoin, but we’re looking at Ethereum and others. 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.”
United Wholesale Mortgage marks the first major mortgage lender to make such a move. The company has been the top wholesale lender for six consecutive years and its business makes up 20% of the market share in the space, according to its site.
Ishiba told the Detroit Free Press that there is no guarantee and that the company is still working through the details but that they have every intention of making crypto payments happen.
“That’s the plan. Obliviously there’s no guarantees — we’re still working through some details. But absolutely.”
This story is developing.