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The adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to gain ground in the United States in bars, businesses, ATMs, and even the possibility of using them for mortgage loans, as proposed by a financial technology company in Miami, Florida.
The world of financial services is undergoing a revolution. Classic banking is no longer the only actor: With crypto-currencies as a base, the Miami-based Milo technology company has just launched the “Crypto Mortgage,” which takes advantage of this currency (Bitcoin at the moment) to invest in real estate in this country.
“We realized that there were international clients with interesting assets in crypto-currencies who were finding it difficult to qualify for a conventional mortgage loan” in the United States, Josip Rupena, president and founder of Milo, told EFE news agency.
Rupena quickly understood that an “opportunity” was opening up for his company, and, in 2021, he shaped this type of financial solution for customers who “want to buy a property without having to sell their ‘crypto’ to pay in dollars,” as happens with a conventional mortgage.
The “crypto-mortgages”
The success of these innovative “crypto-mortgages” has been such that Milo currently has a waiting list of 6,000 people who “want to buy a property and make their monthly payments in crypto-currencies.”
“There is a great demand from clients all over the world and we are already processing mortgage loans” in digital currency with interest rates between 5 and 7%, said Rupena, of Chilean origin, raised in Miami and graduated cum laude in Finance at the University of Miami (UM).
Regarding the advantages of the “crypto mortgage,” Rupena pointed out that the first is the offer of financing of up to 100% of the purchase, with no dollar down payments and in a faster way than with a conventional mortgage. In addition, the investor’s crypto-currency asset does not suffer the wear and tear of “opportunity cost”. In other words, “he does not have to sell his crypto-currencies to see their value increase over the years,” explains the creator of the world’s first “crypto” mortgage.
Rupena, who began his career in the world of finance at Goldman Sachs, pointed out that “the world does not yet understand the value of this customer segment,” of the “opportunities” it offers and the new financial services in “crypto” that are yet to come.
The truth is that the attractiveness of crypto-currency applications has turned them into a social phenomenon, as it is evident in Miami, where recently a popular nightclub, E11even, began accepting bill payments in this currency.
The Mayor’s Office itself announced this summer its interest in becoming the first city to trade its own virtual currency, the MiamiCoin, a crypto-currency of CityCoins. Although the Mayor’s Office of Miami is not associated with this initiative, its Mayor, Francis Suarez, was an enthusiastic supporter of crypto-currencies and the bitcoin in the “Magic City.”
Miami becomes the epicenter of the crypto industry
Suarez has been a “great supporter and is doing a tremendous amount for the tech community in Miami,” said Rupena, whose company was recently praised by the Mayor for its openness to financial services with products such as “crypto mortgages.”
In this ecosystem of global digital economy, The Bitcoin 2021 Conference, the largest event in the history of virtual currencies, was held in Miami with a full house and optimistic messages about how this paradigm of financial freedom, and non-intermediation, can “change everything.”
In fact, Suarez said he was very happy that his city was chosen to succeed Los Angeles as the conference venue and commented that for months “an unprecedented number of companies, technology companies and investors” had chosen to relocate there.
The “cryptocurrency segment continues to grow in importance and we aim to launch new digital solutions,” added Rupena, who previously worked as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and today serves international investors from 63 countries, both with digital currencies and official currencies. On the strength and security of cryptocurrencies, he explained that in 2017 “it was valued at $400 billion and the total sum is worth $2 trillion today.”
Economist, writer and liberal. With a focus on finance, the war on drugs, history, and geopolitics // Economista, escritor y liberal. Con enfoque en finanzas, guerra contra las drogas, historia y geopolítica