Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest bank, and Galaxy Digital have announced a partnership to provide digital asset trading services, making Leumi the first Israeli bank to offer cryptocurrency trading to its customers.
The partnership, disclosed on August 14, will allow customers of Leumi and PEPPER, the bank’s mobile digital banking arm, to buy, hold and sell selected digital assets including Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. Trading will take place within the Leumi Trade capital markets application in a dedicated, secured section. The service is expected to become available to customers in early 2027.
GalaxyOne Institutional Platform Powers the Integration
Bank Leumi will use GalaxyOne Institutional, Galaxy’s platform built for banks, asset managers and other institutions, to provide trading and other services. The bank also signed an agreement with Galaxy’s Custody Infrastructure platform, formerly known as GK8, to support its digital asset custody needs.
We are constantly working to expand the range of advanced financial services that the bank offers its customers. This initiative represents a significant pillar of the bank’s innovation strategy and enables us to provide customers with simple, secure, and regulated access to trading digital assets through one of the world’s leading technological infrastructures, said Maya Ravia, Head of Strategy at Bank Leumi.
The announcement marks a notable step for Israel’s banking sector, where digital asset adoption has lagged behind peers in the United States and Europe. Bank Leumi previously partnered with Paxos in 2022 to enable limited Bitcoin and Ethereum trading through its Pepper Invest platform, but this new partnership with Galaxy Digital represents a broader and more institutional-grade integration, adding Solana and leveraging Galaxy’s institutional infrastructure.
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. Galaxy Digital, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker GLXY, has been expanding its institutional platform to serve banks globally, with its Helios data center campus in Texas also positioning the firm in the AI and high-performance computing space.
Israel Moves Toward Crypto Regulation
The partnership comes as Israel has been developing its regulatory framework for digital assets. In June 2026, the Israeli Ministry of Finance published a draft bill for public comment establishing a licensing and supervisory regime for stablecoin issuers for the first time. The broader regulatory environment, combined with Bank Leumi’s scale as the country’s leading financial institution, signals growing mainstream acceptance of digital assets within Israel’s financial system.
Sources: PRNewswire; CoinDesk; Lexology
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