How to document crypto as a source of funds

An underwriter accepting crypto-derived funds wants three things: proof the asset was yours, proof of the conversion to dollars, and a traceable path from conversion to closing. Produce all three and you've sourced the funds — no 60–90 day seasoning period required by most crypto-experienced lenders.

Here's the file, piece by piece. RealOpen packages it as two documents lenders can ask for by name — the RealScore™ report (verified ownership and holdings) and the Transaction Record (conversion and flow of funds) — and lenders have released closing docs on exactly this basis, with the down payment reaching escrow as little as two days before closing.

1. Proof of ownership

The underwriter needs to know the crypto belonged to you — not a friend, not a lender, not someone whose money is briefly wearing your wallet.

  • Wallet verification: cryptographic proof you control the address (a signed message or verified micro-transfer — screenshots don't count).

  • Holding history: how long the assets sat there. Longer histories read like seasoned assets; a wallet funded last Tuesday raises the same questions a mystery bank deposit does.

  • Exchange accounts: account statements in your name, matching your application identity.

RealOpen's wallet verification handles this step in minutes and is the basis of your Proof of Funds letter.

2. Conversion records

Document the sale: what was sold, when, at what price, through what venue, and what it netted in USD. A retail-exchange cash-out can produce this, but records vary in quality and withdrawals can hit limits and delays mid-escrow. An OTC conversion executed for the closing produces a single clean record sized to the transaction — which is how RealOpen executes, at closing, not weeks early.

3. Flow of funds

The dollars' route from conversion to close. The gold standard is one hop: conversion venue → escrow, by wire. Every intermediate stop (personal checking, a second bank, a payment app) adds a statement to collect and a question to answer. RealOpen wires converted funds directly to escrow — see flow of funds.

The anti-checklist

Things that break the chain, in order of how often we see them:

  1. Selling informally months ahead, then trying to reconstruct records.
  2. Routing through multiple personal accounts "to be safe."
  3. Mixing crypto proceeds with other deposits in the same account.
  4. Using funds from a wallet you can't cryptographically prove is yours.
  5. Undocumented peer-to-peer sales.

Each of these turns sourced funds back into an unexplained deposit — and unexplained deposits get the seasoning speech. Background: crypto down payment seasoning explained.

Frequently asked questions