Bitcoin BTC continued its gentle rise on Wednesday as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which play a pivotal role in issuing mortgages to U.S. homeowners — were ordered by the William Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to prepare to accept cryptocurrencies as part of applicants' assets. Back above $107,000, the top cryptocurrency is up 2.2% in the last 24 hours, and outperforming the CoinDesk 20's 0.5% advance. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was a notable outperformer, rising 7.4%. Alongside, BTC’s dominance keeps going up, now with almost 66% of the total crypto market value now parked in the orange coin, up from 39% in November 2023. Today’s move may be partially due to FHFA Director William Pulte sharing on social media that borrowers would soon be able to take advantage of their crypto holdings for loan purposes. "This is important on two levels," Strive CEO Matt Cole posted on X. "[It] makes it substantially easier for holders of bitcoin to purchase a house without selling their bitcoin. [And] the U.S. government is taking Bitcoin risk on its own book as the U.S. government implicitly guarantees Fannie/Freddie mortgage loans." The ceasefire secured by Trump between Israel and Iran may also be pushing bitcoin’s price higher, despite the asset’s reputation as a potential safe haven investment. “Gold likes war, while bitcoin prefers peace,” said Charlie Morris, founder of financial services firm ByteTree. “Gold peaked ahead of hostilities in the Middle East, while bitcoin sank. Once it seemed likely that military actions were contained, bitcoin rallied, and gold dropped back.” Crypto stocks, meanwhile, have remained relatively subdued, with the notable exceptions of bitcoin miner CleanSpark (CLSK), up 6.7%, while fellow miner CoreWeave (CORZ), slid the same amount. There was also Circle (CRCL), which declined another 11% today and is now down by about 33% since peaking Monday just shy of $300 per share. At the current $198.62, the stock is still up more than six-fold from its IPO price of $31.
