Weiss Ratings Report Claims Crypto-Backed Home Loans Spell Trouble

A report published on May 2 by the rating agency Weiss Ratings warns that crypto-backed mortgages “spell risk.” Weiss editor Jon D. Markman said backing a mortgage with crypto is an “interesting strategy,” but stressed that during these market conditions “investors should be skeptical.” Weiss Ratings Editor Doesn’t Believe Crypto and Mortgages Mix According to … Read more

Biggest Bank in El Salvador Now Accepts Bitcoin as Payment for Financial Products

Bancoagricola, the biggest bank in El Salvador, is now accepting bitcoin to pay for debts originated from the use of its instruments, according to a PR statement. The institution partnered with Flexa, a payments network, to include cryptocurrency capabilities in its software. Bancoagricola also allows merchants using Wompi services (a digital payment processor) to receive … Read more

Digital Transformation Law Draft Would Allow Users to Pay Mortgages With Crypto in Spain

A new proposal of a digital transformation law, written by a group of lawmakers in Spain would introduce the possibility of paying mortgages with cryptocurrency. The law draft also gives different incentives for companies and organizations using and developing solutions using these technologies, including tax cuts. Banks are also included in the regulation, and the … Read more

Easy-Money Policy Continues: Fed Plans to Keep Purchasing Assets, Interest Rates to Stay Near Zero

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve discussed the possibility of economic measures and actions at the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. The Fed said that right now the central bank is not considering cutting back large asset purchases just yet, and the central bank also plans to keep interest rates at near-zero. … Read more

Canadian Company Mogo Offers Bitcoin Rewards for Clients Engaging in a New Mortgage or Refinancing

On Monday, the publicly-listed Canadian company Mogo announced the firm is extending the bitcoin rewards program applied to the firm’s prepaid Visa card to the operation’s Mogomortgage product. Mogo members leveraging the Mogomortgage platform can earn up to $3,100 in bitcoin if they engage in a new mortgage or refinance an existing real estate loan. … Read more

Aave Protocol Outpaces Maker With $1.4B Locked, Defi Project Granted UK Electronic Money License

The decentralized finance (defi) open-source protocol built on Ethereum, Aave, has surpassed the Maker Dao project in terms of total-value-locked (TVL) this week. The lending and borrowing platform Aave has $1.43 billion locked on Tuesday climbing 7.7% in the last 24-hours. On August 25, the defi project Aave (the Finnish word for ‘ghost’) has seen … Read more

US Real Estate Market Shudders: Experts Predict 40% Lower Sales, March Contracts Dip by 21%

According to the National Association of Realtors, pending contracts for property sales dropped by 20.8% in March. Further, the 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate dropped to 3.43%, but a great majority of people are still not interested in buying or renting homes at the moment. Economists predict that home sales could shudder in the next … Read more

Homeowners Can’t Pay: US Lenders Prepare for Catastrophic Real Estate Market

The coronavirus has managed to seep into every facet of the global economy and it seems nothing will escape its financial wrath. During the last two weeks as unemployment levels have skyrocketed in the U.S.; analysts, economists, and wealth managers have been warning about another subprime mortgage crisis. Most of these observers believe there’s no … Read more

Printing Money from Thin Air – How the Fed Reduces Purchasing Power and Makes You Poorer

Unless you have your head in the sand, you’ve probably realized that governments and central banks can print money out of thin air and in unlimited amounts. The United States and the Federal Reserve have been creating money from nothing for years because they had exhausted all their monetary policies. Despite the fact that many … Read more