Bank Leumi is positioning Israel as a leader in institutional crypto trading: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana will become available to clients
Israel's largest banking institution, Bank Leumi, is making a strategic breakthrough into the digital economy. I am closely tracking this case: on August 14, the credit organization officially confirmed a partnership with Galaxy Digital, one of the leading players in the digital assets market. This involves the full-scale launch of trading in bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana for the bank's clients and its mobile division PEPPER.
Infrastructure and launch timeline
The key point here is the technical implementation. Trading will be available through a secure section in the Leumi Trade app, with the institutional platform GalaxyOne and the custody solution Custody Infrastructure (formerly known as GK8) serving as the technological foundation. According to my data, the service will begin operating in early 2027. This is not a spontaneous decision but a well-calibrated step within the bank's long-term innovation strategy.
Senior executive of the financial institution, Maya Raviv, emphasizes that the initiative aims to provide clients with simple, secure, and regulated access to digital assets. She rightly notes that cryptocurrencies are becoming an integral part of the global financial system, and the bank's task is to integrate them into a regulated banking model.
Context and ambitions
It is important to understand that this is not Leumi's first attempt to enter the retail crypto segment. As early as March 2022, the Pepper Invest platform announced a partnership with stablecoin issuer Paxos to launch operations with bitcoin and Ethereum with a minimum threshold of 50 shekels (~$15.5). The launch never materialized then due to regulatory barriers. Now, however, the bank appears ready to act more decisively and on a larger scale.
Analyzing Chainalysis data, I see a steady growth in interest in digital assets in Israel: in the year leading up to June 2025, approximately $22 billion flowed into the country through on-chain channels. Growth in the MENA region was 33% year-over-year, lower than the figures for APAC (69%) and Latin America (63%), yet retail activity in Israel after October 2023 consistently exceeded forecasts by an average of 60.4%. This points to high unmet demand that the bank now intends to serve legally.
It is also worth noting that in April 2026, the Israel Capital Markets Authority issued its first license for the issuance of a shekel-pegged stablecoin — the issuer being the exchange Bits of Gold. This creates a favorable regulatory environment for further expansion.
My expert conclusion: Bank Leumi's decision is not just another banking service but an important signal for the entire market. Institutional capital is ceasing to treat cryptocurrencies as a speculative instrument, integrating them into the classical financial ecosystem. In the long term, such steps will contribute to the legitimization and growth of liquidity for digital assets in the Middle East, and Israel could become a key hub for institutional crypto trading in the region.