Bank Leumi and Galaxy Digital plan $BTC access for Israel's retail customers, pending the approval that blocked the 2022 bid
$BTC is back in focus at Bank Leumi, Israel's largest retail lender, after the bank and Galaxy Digital said Thursday they will offer Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana trading to roughly 2.5 million customers inside the Leumi Trade capital markets app. The service is expected to become available in early 2027, conditional on Bank of Israel sign-off. That is the same approval that killed Leumi's first attempt.
Key takeaways
- Bank Leumi, Israel's largest retail lender, and Galaxy Digital announced Thursday they will offer Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana trading to roughly 2.5 million customers via the Leumi Trade app.
- The service is expected to launch in early 2027, conditional on Bank of Israel approval — the same sign-off that blocked Leumi's 2022 attempt through Pepper Invest and Paxos.
- Regulatory changes in 2026 cleared a legal path, including the Bank of Israel removing automatic delays on crypto-linked deposits and an August 1 circular extending trading to the top 50 coins above a $500 million market-cap threshold.
- Galaxy supplies the full infrastructure: execution through GalaxyOne Institutional and custody via GK8, an air-gapped wallet system, backed by its NYDFS BitLicense and a money-transmission license obtained in May 2026.
$BTC is back in focus at Bank Leumi, Israel's largest retail lender, after the bank and Galaxy Digital said Thursday they will offer Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana trading to roughly 2.5 million customers inside the Leumi Trade capital markets app. The service is expected to become available in early 2027, conditional on Bank of Israel sign-off. That is the same approval that killed Leumi's first attempt.
In March 2022, Leumi's mobile banking arm Pepper Invest announced BTC and ETH trading through the crypto infrastructure firm Paxos, billing itself the first Israeli bank to offer the service. The Bank of Israel never cleared it. The deal died.
What changed between 2022 and now
The regulatory framework is different now. In mid-2026 the Bank of Israel removed automatic delays on crypto-linked deposits and barred banks from refusing fiat outright from licensed crypto providers. The Capital Market Authority then set wallet-security and capital standards: 2 million New Israeli Shekels for firms without custody rights, 2.5 million NIS for those holding custody, with mandatory customer-asset segregation in both cases. An August 1 circular extended trading access to the top 50 coins by market cap above a $500 million threshold, clearing a legal path that was not available four years ago.
Galaxy arrives with its own regulatory documentation. It holds a New York Department of Financial Services BitLicense and a money-transmission license obtained in May 2026, giving Leumi a regulated counterparty on execution and custody.
The stack behind the trade button
Galaxy supplies the full infrastructure. Execution flows through GalaxyOne Institutional, a platform built for banks and asset managers. Custody runs on GK8, an air-gapped wallet system (one that never touches the internet) that Galaxy acquired in the aftermath of Celsius's collapse. Customers will trade from the same Leumi Trade app they use for stocks and bonds, through a dedicated section of the app.
Lior Lamesh, CEO of Galaxy Israel, said Leumi is the first Israeli bank to bring digital assets to its customers and that Leumi chose Galaxy to make it possible.
The setup comes down to one variable: Bank of Israel sign-off before early 2027. The last time Leumi reached this point, that approval never came.
Related reading
Filed by the digital assets desk of MarketPR on August 14, 2026. Source: finance.yahoo.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.