Not long ago, if you mentioned Bitcoin or Ethereum when applying for a mortgage, most lenders would politely ignore it or even consider it a red flag. Fast forward to 2025, and the picture is changing — but not completely. While cryptocurrency wealth has become more mainstream, lenders remain cautious, and borrowers need to understand exactly how crypto fits into the mortgage process.

For property investors, landlords, and high-net-worth clients, crypto has become an increasingly significant part of their overall wealth profile. But the reality is that mortgage lenders still prefer traditional, proven income streams. The challenge is bridging the gap between crypto-based wealth and the conservative world of property finance.

Why Lenders Are Still Cautious

There are three main reasons why most lenders treat crypto differently from salary or traditional investments:

Volatility
Even though Bitcoin and other leading coins are less speculative than in their early years, their value can fluctuate wildly compared to fiat currencies. Lenders worry about how secure your income or wealth is when its value can change dramatically in a short space of time.

Regulation and Transparency
While regulation has improved in the UK, lenders still want to see proof that crypto assets have been acquired and held legally. Anti-money-laundering (AML) checks are far stricter for applicants with crypto holdings.

Liquidity
Some lenders argue that crypto wealth is “paper wealth” until it is converted into fiat currency. For mortgage affordability purposes, this often means crypto must be cashed out and evidenced before it counts.

How Crypto Income Is Treated in 2025

Most mainstream lenders still do not recognise crypto income in the same way as salary, dividends, or rental income. That means if your main source of earnings is from trading or mining, your options may be limited.

Specialist lenders, however, have begun to take a more flexible stance. In some cases, they may consider crypto-related income if it has been converted into sterling and consistently deposited into a UK bank account over a period of 12–24 months. Consistency is key. A one-off gain is unlikely to help your application, but provable, regular income streams carry more weight.

For self-employed borrowers, this creates both challenges and opportunities. If crypto income appears on tax returns and bank statements as part of a wider portfolio of earnings, lenders are more likely to consider it. We cover these challenges more broadly in Mortgages for Self-Employed Borrowers in 2025.

How Crypto Assets Are Treated in 2025

When it comes to assets rather than income, the landscape is slightly more encouraging. While few lenders are prepared to take crypto directly as collateral, more are open to considering it as part of your overall wealth profile, particularly for high-net-worth or private bank lending.

Private banks and niche lenders are often more comfortable with sophisticated borrowers who hold diverse assets, including crypto. They may use it to strengthen their overall view of your financial position, even if they won’t lend directly against it. This ties into the growing role of private banks, explored further in our blog Private Bank Mortgages Explained.

In practice, this usually means lenders want to see:

• Evidence of holdings across reputable, regulated exchanges or secure custody wallets
• A clear audit trail of how assets were acquired
• Conversion of at least part of the holdings into fiat currency for deposit purposes

Crypto and Deposits: What Works, What Doesn’t

The most common way crypto wealth supports mortgage borrowing is through deposits. If you sell crypto holdings and transfer the proceeds into a UK bank account, you can then use this as your mortgage deposit. The critical part is documenting the source of funds.

This often involves exchange statements, wallet history, and bank transfer records. Lenders will expect this process to be clear and compliant with anti-money-laundering standards. Without this, even large sums may be disregarded.

Case Study: A Crypto Investor Securing a London Property

One recent case involved a client who had built up significant wealth through Ethereum investments. They wanted to purchase a London property worth £2.5 million. Their day-to-day income from a tech business was strong, but the deposit was to come almost entirely from crypto.

By working with a lender comfortable with high-net-worth profiles, the client was able to use liquidated crypto holdings as their deposit, backed by clear documentation of source of funds. Their income from their business was used for affordability calculations, but the crypto wealth gave them the leverage needed to move forward on the purchase.

This mirrors the wider reality of 2025: crypto is increasingly part of the picture, but rarely the whole story.

Where Crypto Can Fit Strategically

For investors and landlords, crypto can play several useful roles in mortgage planning:

• As a deposit source once liquidated and documented
• As supplementary income when consistent and evidenced over time
• As part of a broader wealth profile for private banks and specialist lenders

But crypto rarely stands alone. It needs to be integrated into a wider portfolio of income and assets that lenders recognise with more confidence.

How Willow Can Help

At Willow Private Finance, we understand that the future of property finance increasingly involves clients with diverse wealth, including cryptocurrency. We’ve worked with investors who built their fortunes through crypto and needed a lender who would take them seriously.

Because we are independent and whole of market, we can introduce clients to specialist lenders and private banks that are open to crypto income or assets as part of the bigger picture. Our role is to help you present your case in the strongest way possible, with the right documentation, structuring, and strategy.

If crypto is part of your financial story, it doesn’t have to hold you back. With the right broker, it can become an asset rather than an obstacle in securing the mortgage you need.

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