Bank Leumi Partners With Galaxy Digital to Bring Bitcoin and Solana Trading to Retail App

Retail investors in Israel will soon be able to trade digital assets directly through Bank Leumi, following an agreement with Galaxy Digital to integrate cryptocurrency execution and custody into the institution’s digital platforms.

According to an official press release, clients using Leumi and its mobile digital banking unit, PEPPER, will gain the ability to buy, hold, and sell designated cryptocurrencies—specifically Bitcoin, Ether and Solana—directly within the Leumi Trade capital markets app. The release noted that trading will operate inside a dedicated, secure module of the platform, with customer access slated for early 2027.

The initiative marks the bank’s second attempt to roll out digital asset trading. In March 2022, Pepper Invest announced plans to support BTC and ETH trading by partnering with tokenization and infrastructure provider Paxos, positioning itself as the premier Israeli bank to enter the sector. However, that product failed to launch after failing to secure regulatory authorization, as the proposed framework stalled at the Bank of Israel.

Updated regulatory rules clear the path

Prior to recent policy adjustments this summer, financial institutions in Israel systematically delayed crypto-related deposits and maintained the authority to reject fiat transfers originating from digital asset sources, while regulated crypto firms operated under restricted asset lists and undefined custody capital rules.

The regulatory landscape shifted in mid-2026 as the Bank of Israel eliminated mandatory deposit holds and prohibited banks from issuing blanket rejections against licensed providers. Simultaneously, the Capital Market Authority established formal wallet security mandates and capital reserves—requiring 2 million New Israeli Shekels for non-custodial operations and 2.5 million New Israeli Shekels for custodial entities, alongside strict segregation of client assets—while an August 1 circular expanded permissible trading to the top 50 coins by market cap above a $500 million threshold, creating a structured framework for Leumi to offer retail crypto products.

Mandatory asset segregation and capital reserve benchmarks—equivalent to roughly $650,000 to $800,000 USD depending on custody structure—were designed to mitigate counterparty risks that previously led to high-profile global exchange collapses. By establishing clear legal boundaries between client holdings and balance-sheet assets, regulators provided commercial banks with the legal clarity required to act as institutional custodians.

Galaxy also supplies regulatory credentials to the arrangement, holding a New York DFS BitLicense as well as a money-transmission license secured in May 2026.

Under the agreement, Galaxy handles both execution and storage infrastructure. Trade execution will operate via GalaxyOne Institutional, a service tailored for traditional banking institutions and asset managers, while asset custody will utilize GK8, an air-gapped wallet maker (one that never touches the internet) that Galaxy acquired after Celsius’s collapse.

Account holders will access cryptocurrency trading from the same application currently used for equities and fixed-income assets. Overall, the banking group maintains a client base of approximately 2.5 million retail customers.

“The future of finance will run on open, programmable rails, and we believe the banks that move first will define the era that follows,” said Lior Lamesh, CEO of Galaxy Israel. “Leumi is the first bank in Israel to bring digital assets to its customers, and it chose Galaxy, to make it possible.”

Both institutions target an early 2027 deployment within the Leumi Trade environment, contingent on formal approval from the Bank of Israel—the primary regulatory authority whose decision previously determined the outcome of Leumi’s 2022 plan.