Israel’s Largest Bank Will Give Bitcoin Trading Another Try

In brief

• Bank Leumi, Israel's largest bank, will let customers trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana inside Leumi Trade through Galaxy's trading and custody rails.
• It's Bank Leumi's second attempt at crypto trading, after a failed run back in 2022.
• The target is early 2027, still subject to Bank of Israel approval—the same gate that killed Leumi's 2022 Paxos plan.

Bank Leumi and Galaxy Digital said Thursday they'll bring cryptocurrency trading to Israel's largest bank through its digital investment arm, Pepper.

“Customers of Leumi and PEPPER, the bank's mobile digital banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell selected digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana, within the Leumi Trade capital markets application,” an official press release says. “Trading will take place in a dedicated, secured section of the app. The service is expected to become available to customers in early 2027.”

It isn't Leumi's first swing. In March 2022, Pepper Invest said it would enable BTC and ETH trading through crypto infrastructure and tokenization company Paxos, also billing itself the first Israeli bank to do so. That service never launched, because the necessary regulatory sign-off never came. Back in 2022 there was a plan to provide similar services, but the deal stalled at the Bank of Israel.