'We'll Tokenize the House': Mortgages Are Coming to Ethereum This Summer

On Thursday the fintech startup Fluidity will announce plans for the first ethereum-powered mortgages in California and New York, CoinDesk has learned.

Fluidity execs say the offering is slated for this summer, once all the licensing paperwork is finalized.

"We'll tokenize the house, which will effectively take the collateral that is the equity of the house," said Fluidity chief architect Todd Lippiatt.

Fluidity formed in early 2019 when the ConsenSys decentralized exchange merged with the FINRA-registered broker-dealer Propellr.

Fluidity co-founder Sam Tabar told CoinDesk that although ethereum mogul and ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin is still a major shareholder in AirSwap, now a Fluidity subsidiary, the newborn parent company has a distinct set of shareholders - including veteran crypto investors like Brock Pierce, Bill Tai and Lubin's former college roommate, Mike Novogratz.

Fluidity's upcoming mortgages will use smart contracts and cryptocurrency for back-end management.

Although the ethereum-backed stablecoin is still struggling to achieve stability and liquidity in broader markets, Lippiatt said mortgages from any such prospective partnership would merely involve a "Mitigatable" risk.

Fluidity processes the information and creates a smart contract with a tokenized representation of the mortgage.

DeFi smart contracts will provide theoretically auditable records, plus Lippiatt said Fluidity plans to offer cheaper rates than banks.

The company plans to make the announcement later today at its second Fluidity Summit in Brooklyn.