A buyer with $190,000 in bitcoin could put down 20% on a $475,000 Canadian home without selling a single coin. Toronto lender APX Lending opened a waitlist on Wednesday for mortgages that let buyers borrow against their bitcoin instead, with loans planned for early 2027.
Key points:
- APX opened its waitlist on Wednesday, and it says it will be Canada's first regulated bitcoin mortgage lender, with the first loans coming in early 2027.
- The maths is plain: a $475,000 home takes $190,000 in pledged bitcoin for a 20% down payment, and close to $475,000 pledged if you want to cover the whole price.
- What buyers still do not know is the price of it all — no rates, no loan limits, no margin-call rules yet — and a sharp bitcoin fall could force them to add more collateral fast.
APX is not starting from zero. It already lends against crypto, and last month, it rolled out five-year bitcoin and ether credit lines that borrowers can draw and repay again and again. Its chief, Andrei Poliakov, says 15.8% of the firm's current crypto loan volume is already tied to real estate, and he puts the whole Canadian market for bitcoin-backed home finance at $44 million to $73 million. Set that next to Canada's $1.75 trillion mortgage market, and the honest size of this first step is clear: tiny for now, but a real door opening.
The United States got there first. Miami lender Milo says it has already made more than $100 million in crypto-backed mortgages, including one $12 million loan, with repayment terms running to 30 years. That track record is why APX's move reads as more than a stunt: buyers in both countries keep asking to hold their coins and still buy a home, and lenders are now building products around that wish.
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So what happens if Bitcoin crashes mid-mortgage?
This is where the small print matters, and right now, most of it is still blank. Poliakov says a 40% fall in bitcoin would push a loan that started at 50% loan-to-value up to about 83%. APX's current loans sell off part of a borrower's bitcoin when that ratio hits 90%, pulling it back to 85%, but the firm says its mortgages will carry separate rules on notice periods and shortfalls. For a full-price loan, the house itself also stands as collateral, so whether a shortfall could ever put the home at risk will rest on the final loan agreement. APX holds customer coins with BitGo and says it never lends that collateral out, which at least answers one worry up front.
My own read is this: a waitlist is not a mortgage yet. Until APX prints real rates and margin-call rules, this is a promise to watch, not a product to judge. The idea is clever, but clever does not pay a monthly bill.
What to watch is simple. APX says it will publish its mortgage terms before the planned launch, so the next real news here is a number: the rate, the loan limit, and the margin-call rule. If those land in early 2027 as planned, expect other Canadian lenders to look hard at the same idea.
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— BitByLine News Desk
One last thing, and it matters: this story is news to read and learn from, nothing more. It is not financial advice, and BitByLine will never push you to buy or sell crypto. That choice is always yours alone, and so is the risk that comes with it. Check things yourself before you act on any of it.
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Sources: CoinDesk, Fintech.ca