For CJ Konstantinos, the case of Bitcoin-backed mortgages is a person. In 2019, he paid 100 Bitcoin for a house. That Bitcoin is now worth about $7.6 million and he says he won’t sell his house for more than $500,000.
At the time, it was the kind of business that most financial people would have considered reckless. Now, Konstantinos runs the Peoples Reserve and speaks at the world’s largest Bitcoin conference to explain why he is doing it again – this time through bitcoin lending products – it makes sense because of the number of owners.
“Bitcoin found me and hit me over the head,” Konstantinos said Wednesday at a panel titled “From HODL to Home: Bitcoin-Backed Loans Meet Mortgages” on the Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas.
The session brought together officials from SALT Leasing and the Peoples Reserve to discuss what they argue is a risky market: using Bitcoin as collateral to buy a house, not selling the property.
The discussion touched on hard money strategies, but it kept coming back to something more important. Housing, Konstantinos said, is not just about selling real estate. That’s where you start a family. That’s when you feel safe. This arrangement set the tone for the discussion that ties Bitcoin’s innovation to one of humanity’s economic needs.
Bitcoin is making ownership easier
Hunter Albright, chief financial officer at SALT Lending, said the numbers in the housing market tell a difficult story. It has become more difficult to buy a first home, he said, pointing to data that shows an increasing share of US first-time home buyers are now over 40. Those kinds of numbers are proof that traditional mortgages aren’t working for many people.
At the same time, Albright said, a large pool of wealth resides in Bitcoin – useless, in the eyes of its owners, but not used as a financial instrument. SALT, which is approaching ten years of Bitcoin-backed lending, has identified four use cases that it sees in its clients: access, for borrowers who need a bridge in traditional finance; advantage, the ability to move quickly and close the loan within about 24 hours; agility, the opportunity to buy a new home before the existing property is sold; and acceleration, using Bitcoin-backed loans to build wealth over time.
Konstantinos provided the guarantee based on the financial history. Gold they work as collateral, he said, but they are physical and difficult to move. The US economy is strong but has an inflationary risk built into the expansion.
Bitcoin, he argued, takes all the advantages: it has limits, it is based on the chain, and it can move billions around the world without friction and stability.
“You have a small group of men who decide the value of money,” he said of the current interest rate system. “You can’t keep up with what’s going on now.” His argument was that Bitcoin collateral, by reducing the borrower’s risk, creates conditions for lower lending and affordable housing.
Albright promoted the theory from a lending perspective. Bitcoin, he said, is a “game changer” for access to capital markets. Because the collateral is strong and liquid, lending companies are able to raise funds at favorable rates and improve customer service.
SALT has also developed technology that can convert Bitcoin collateral into stablecoins on volatile markets, which it has deployed as a means of protecting both sides of the transaction.
Both agreed that these products have been helping affluent customers – what Konstantinos called “golden people,” older families, and traditional investors. But they said the next wave is big.
“Bitcoin solves my problem,” Konstantinos said, explaining how a new group of users is coming to the market. Albright also commented on this development, saying that Bitcoin is bringing options that are only available to private banking customers to anyone who has assets.
The group also touched on a systemic shift that Albright sees in the broader economy: a shift from performance-based financing to asset-based financing. In that country, being able to borrow what you own – without selling it – becomes less and less of a financial asset.
