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American Pacific Mortgage is acquiring Synergy One Lending, multiple sources told The Mortgage Scoop on Friday. The M&A deal positions APM/S1 as a roughly $14B retail lender w/ a fat book of business in California. 

Staff at Synergy One, which originated about $4B last year, were informed on Friday during a 30-minute call, sources said. Synergy One’s Steve Majerus will transition to president of APM while Aaron Nemec will run Synergy One Lending, a division of APM.

We have insider details for paid subscribers below. Plus, the first crypto-backed conventional mortgage is here. And I’ve got news on ICE landing a big new client for Encompass…

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What's On Tap - June 5

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The Crypto Conventional Mortgage is Here (Ut Oh?) 😱

I received a press release last night from Better, informing me that the first crypto-backed conventional mortgage (Fannie) had recently been issued to a young couple in Michigan. 

Joe & Amy didn't sell their Bitcoin to make a down payment on their new home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Instead, they locked it in a Coinbase custody account in lieu of cash. Vishal Garg’s Better originated the 30-year fixed conventional loan, which is backed by the home & has the crypto sitting alongside it. 

But bad news for Joe & Amy (and weird timing for Better): Bitcoin on Friday fell below $60K for the first time since October ‘24, a casualty of a rapidly changing speculative landscape. Bitcoin has lost more than half its value since reaching a peak above $126K in October ‘25 (but TBF is up 72% over the last 5 years).

We unfortunately don’t have details from Better on Joe & Amy’s loan-to-collateral ratio or the trigger point for a collateral call. But if Bitcoin’s value drops far enough that the pledged crypto no longer satisfies the collateral requirement, Joe & Amy have some v unfortunate choices to make. 

  1. Pledge more Bitcoin to make up the shortfall

  2. Convert to cash or USDC to top up the collateral account

  3. Face forced liquidation of the Bitcoin by Coinbase

I mean, the entire pitch was avoiding a sale in the first place, not having to liquidate or deal w/ capital gains, right? If Joe & Amy locked a month ago (May 5), their collateral has already dropped $20K. IMO, there’s a lot of utility & value in incorporating crypto into the mortgage market, but we’re just trading one risk (selling to make a down payment) for another (volatility in collateral sounds stressful AF). Big props to Better for innovating here, but I feel like the world is a much more volatile place lately…

Check out our past coverage on crypto mortgages here.

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APM-Synergy One🙀

APM, a veteran acquirer that’s an ESOP, has been in talks w/ Synergy One for months, sources told The Scoop.

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