Israel’s Largest Bank Prepares Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana Trading Through Galaxy

Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank, is preparing to bring cryptocurrency trading directly into its mainstream investment platform, allowing customers to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana without leaving the bank’s ecosystem.

The bank announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital on August 14, saying the service is expected to become available to customers in early 2027. Once launched, Leumi says it will become the first bank in Israel to offer digital-asset trading services directly to customers. The planned offering will be accessible through the Leumi Trade capital-markets application, including for customers of PEPPER, the bank’s mobile digital-banking arm.

The significance of the move goes beyond the three assets initially selected. Until now, buying cryptocurrency in Israel has generally required customers to use a dedicated crypto exchange or another specialized digital-asset provider. Leumi’s approach would effectively place crypto alongside traditional investment products inside an established banking relationship.

That could lower one of the biggest barriers to mainstream adoption: complexity.

Customers would not necessarily need to open a separate exchange account, transfer funds to a crypto platform and manage a new custody arrangement. Instead, digital assets would appear within the same investment environment used for traditional financial activity. Leumi plans to create a dedicated, secured section within Leumi Trade for cryptocurrency transactions.

Galaxy Digital will provide much of the infrastructure behind the service. Leumi will use GalaxyOne Institutional, Galaxy’s trading platform designed for banks, asset managers and other institutional clients. The bank has also signed an agreement to use Galaxy’s Custody Infrastructure, formerly known as GK8, for its digital-asset infrastructure and custody requirements.

The partnership illustrates how traditional financial institutions are increasingly choosing to integrate crypto through specialist infrastructure providers rather than building every component themselves.

This is particularly important for banks because cryptocurrency custody presents operational and security challenges that differ from conventional securities custody. Private-key management, blockchain transaction settlement, wallet infrastructure and digital-asset security require specialized systems. By outsourcing much of that technical layer to Galaxy, Leumi can focus on the customer-facing banking relationship while relying on an established digital-asset infrastructure provider.

The timing is also notable. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana have all become increasingly entrenched as institutional crypto assets, with investment products, custody services and derivatives markets developing around them. Galaxy itself announced earlier this month that it was providing staking infrastructure for Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s new Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products, illustrating the broader expansion of crypto services into traditional finance.

For Israel, Leumi’s announcement represents another step in a market that has already demonstrated substantial cryptocurrency activity. The Block cited Chainalysis data showing an estimated $22 billion of on-chain crypto value flowing through Israel during the 12 months through June 2025. Across the wider Middle East and North Africa region, on-chain activity exceeded $500 billion during the same period.

Yet Leumi’s current plan is not the bank’s first attempt to enter the cryptocurrency market.

In 2022, the bank announced a partnership with Paxos that was intended to enable customers to trade cryptocurrency. That initiative ultimately did not move forward. The latest project therefore represents a second attempt, but the regulatory and market environment is considerably more mature than it was several years ago.

The new initiative is still subject to the regulatory framework governing digital-asset services in Israel, meaning the planned early-2027 launch should not be interpreted as a completed rollout yet. The bank and Galaxy have announced the intended service and infrastructure, but availability to customers will depend on the required approvals and implementation process.

For the broader crypto industry, the most important implication may be what happens next.

When a major commercial bank integrates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into its existing investment platform, digital assets become less of a separate financial category and more of an ordinary portfolio component. That can make crypto substantially more accessible to conservative investors who are comfortable with their bank but reluctant to navigate dedicated exchanges.

Leumi’s decision also creates a potential blueprint for other banks in Israel and elsewhere. If customers use the service in meaningful numbers and the operational model proves viable, competitors may have greater incentive to offer similar products.

The planned launch therefore represents more than another crypto trading venue. It is a test of whether digital assets can become a standard banking service. If Bank Leumi succeeds in placing Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana alongside traditional investments inside its core financial platform, the boundary between traditional banking and cryptocurrency may become considerably harder to define.