White House Crypto Push Loses Its Architect Midstream

Plus: 🏠 Fannie Mae eyes crypto mortgages, 💰 MARA cuts debt with bitcoin sale, 🗳️ Coinbase backed group targets key races

Author

Juan Aranovich
March 27, 2026

Hi! In today’s edition:

  • 🏠 Fannie Mae prepares to back crypto collateralized mortgages

  • 🏛️ White House crypto lead David Sacks exits with policy unfinished

  • 💰 MARA sells $1.1 billion in bitcoin to cut debt by 30%

  • 🗳️ Stand With Crypto targets six key midterm races

  • 🤖 AI debate heats up over who actually captures the value

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Fannie Mae Will Accept Crypto-Backed Mortgages for the First Time

Fannie Mae is preparing to back mortgages collateralized by cryptocurrency for the first time. The new product, developed with Better Home & Finance and Coinbase, will let borrowers pledge crypto holdings when securing a Fannie-backed loan instead of selling tokens to fund a down payment.

The shift matters because of who's making it: Fannie Mae backstops a massive share of American mortgages, and its underwriting decisions ripple across the entire lending industry. 

Key details remain undisclosed, including which cryptocurrencies will qualify, how collateral gets valued, and what risk parameters apply. But the signal is clear: the line between digital wealth and traditional homeownership is starting to blur.

The White House's Crypto Champion Exits With the Job Half Done

David Sacks stepped down Thursday as the White House's AI and crypto czar after hitting the 130-day limit for special government employees. He moves to co-chair PCAST, the president's science and technology advisory council, alongside Michael Kratsios, with a mandate that spans AI, quantum computing, and nuclear power. The crypto-specific focus narrows considerably.

Sacks helped pass the GENIUS Act on stablecoins and championed the strategic Bitcoin reserve, but the centerpiece of the industry's legislative wish list, the CLARITY Act on market structure, remains stuck in the Senate Banking Committee. A markup is targeted for late April, though disputes over DeFi provisions and ethics language persist.

Circle Crashed Because of the Clarity Act Draft. But Is It Oversold?

Circle had its worst day as a public company on Tuesday. CRCL dropped 20% after the CLARITY Act proposed banning passive stablecoin yield. But Bernstein says the market is making a basic error: confusing the issuer with the distributor. The bill targets platforms like Coinbase, not Circle's reserve income. With the Coinbase revenue-sharing deal up for renegotiation in August, the selloff might be handing bulls a gift. 

We ran our own valuation.

MARA Holdings Sells 15,133 Bitcoin to Slash Its Convertible Debt by 30%

MARA Holdings sold 15,133 bitcoin, roughly $1.1 billion worth, over a three-week stretch ending March 25. 

The proceeds are funding a repurchase of approximately $1.0 billion of its zero-coupon convertible notes due 2030 and 2031at roughly 9% below par, capturing an estimated $88.1 million in value from the discount. 

The buyback cuts MARA's total convertible debt by about 30%, from $3.3 billion down to $2.3 billion, and meaningfully reduces the dilution overhang that has weighed on the stock. 

CEO Fred Thiel called it a capital allocation decision, not a change in thesis. MARA still holds 38,689 BTC after the transaction. Shares rose 10% in premarket trading.

Stand With Crypto Targets Six Battleground Races Ahead of November Midterms

Stand With Crypto, the Coinbase-backed advocacy group that spent tens of millions during the 2024 cycle, is lining up for the November midterms with endorsements in six battleground congressional races. 

The picks span both parties: Republicans Zach Nunn (Iowa), Mike Lawler (New York), and Rob Bresnahan (Pennsylvania) alongside Democrats Don Davis (North Carolina), Susie Lee (Nevada), and Greg Landsman (Ohio). Polling from Impact Research found 64% of crypto holders are enthusiastic about backing pro-crypto candidates, and 59% don't always vote along party lines. 

The timing is urgent: Kalshi prediction markets put Democratic odds of taking the House at over 84%, a shift that could stall the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, crypto tax reform, and the strategic bitcoin reserve.

Where AI Value Actually Goes (Hint: Not Model Companies)

Jeff Bezos is raising $100 billion for Project Prometheus to acquire manufacturing companies and transform them with AI. Mark Zuckerberg is building a personal AI CEO agent to bypass management layers at Meta. The question: where does AI value actually accrue?

Ram Ahluwalia argues the consumer wins. Venture capital is subsidizing the real economy through tools like Claude that lose money but deliver massive productivity gains. Chris Perkins says people are resilient and will adapt the way influencers emerged from the internet era.

  • ⚙️ Ethereum developers chose not to prioritize a proposal backed by Vitalik Buterin that aimed to make the network more user-friendly and resistant to future quantum computers, citing its complexity, and instead downgraded it to a secondary feature for the upcoming 2026 “Hegota” upgrade.

  • 📊🔮 ARK Invest, the innovation-focused asset manager led by Cathie Wood, is integrating data from Kalshi — a prediction market platform where users bet on real-world outcomes — to guide investment decisions and hedge risks tied to major events and economic shifts.

  • 💸 Investors pulled $171 million from U.S. Bitcoin ETFs in a single day, marking the biggest outflow in weeks and signaling a pause in institutional demand after earlier strong inflows, raising doubts about Bitcoin’s ability to hold current price levels.

  • 🧾🔍 Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, hired KPMG — with support from PwC — to conduct its first full Big Four audit, a major step toward improving transparency after years of scrutiny over its reserves and past regulatory fines.

  • 💳 Tazapay, a cross-border payments infrastructure startup focused on emerging markets, raised $36 million in fresh funding led by Circle’s investment arm, with backing from Coinbase Ventures and others to expand licenses across regions like the UAE and EU while building AI-driven payment systems.