In a landmark move for decentralized finance, crypto venture firm Framework Ventures and mortgage service leader Better have announced a strategic partnership to tokenize $500 million in real estate mortgages, directly integrating them into the Sky stablecoin ecosystem. This ambitious project, revealed in early 2025, represents one of the most significant attempts to bridge traditional finance with blockchain technology.
The collaboration marks a major evolution for the Sky ecosystem, formerly known as MakerDAO, as it expands its collateral base into the massive U.S. residential mortgage market. Framework Ventures and Better plan to supply half a billion dollars in credit to the Sky ecosystem by converting pools of conforming residential mortgages into digital tokens on a blockchain. These tokenized mortgages will then serve as collateral within the Sky protocol, which mints the decentralized stablecoin DAI, unlocking liquidity from traditionally illiquid real estate assets.
The project includes issuing specialized yield-bearing tokens linked directly to the underlying mortgage payments, allowing investors to gain exposure to real estate debt returns without directly owning property. The technical architecture involves creating a legal entity to hold the mortgage notes, which then issues digital tokens representing ownership interests. Smart contracts on the blockchain will manage the flow of principal and interest payments from homeowners to token holders.
The partners have engaged with legal experts to navigate complex regulatory frameworks, including securities laws and real estate regulations, ensuring compliance for mainstream adoption. Better, as a licensed mortgage originator and servicer, will handle the origination, underwriting, and servicing of the mortgages, while Framework Ventures contributes deep crypto-economic design knowledge and DeFi integration experience.
This initiative is projected to significantly impact the Sky ecosystem's metrics. The Total Value Locked (TVL) in Real-World Assets (RWA) is expected to rise from approximately $3 billion to over $3.5 billion, with the percentage of DAI supply backed by RWAs increasing from around 40% to over 50%. Annual protocol revenue from RWAs could grow from about $150 million to over $200 million.
The deal arrives amid a broader surge in real-world asset tokenization, with major institutions like BlackRock and JPMorgan exploring similar concepts. The global real estate market, valued at over $300 trillion, presents a prime target. Framework Ventures co-founder Vance Spencer stated, "With this capital injection, we think Better will be able to rapidly scale origination and potentially lower mortgage rates for consumers in the long term." Better's founder and CEO, Vishal Garg, added that they will be "the first conforming mortgage originator to deploy tokenized capital to responsibly support mortgage assets at institutional scale."
