Israel’s largest bank is preparing to bring cryptocurrency trading directly into its mainstream banking infrastructure, marking a potentially significant milestone for digital-asset adoption in the country.

Bank Leumi has partnered with Galaxy Digital to allow customers to buy, hold and sell selected cryptocurrencies through the bank’s Leumi Trade investment platform. The initial offering is expected to include Bitcoin, Ether and Solana, with the service targeted for launch in early 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

The planned service would make Leumi the first Israeli bank to offer direct digital-asset trading to its customers. Rather than requiring users to transfer funds to a separate cryptocurrency exchange, the bank intends to place crypto trading inside the same investment environment customers already use for traditional financial assets.

Under the partnership, customers of Bank Leumi and its mobile banking arm PEPPER will be able to access digital assets through a dedicated section of the Leumi Trade capital-markets application.

Galaxy will provide the infrastructure behind the service. Its GalaxyOne Institutional platform will handle trading and related services, while Galaxy’s Custody Infrastructure platform, formerly known as GK8, will support digital-asset custody.

This architecture is important because custody and execution are among the most complicated components of offering cryptocurrency through a regulated financial institution. By relying on an established institutional provider, Leumi does not need to build an entirely new crypto trading and custody stack from scratch.

The initial asset selection is also notable. Bitcoin and Ether remain the two largest and most established cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, while adding Solana gives customers exposure to one of the largest alternative blockchain ecosystems.

Leumi has not yet announced the complete list of supported assets, trading fees or a precise launch date.

The announcement is particularly interesting because this is not Leumi’s first attempt to enter the cryptocurrency market.

In 2022, Leumi’s digital banking platform announced plans to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading through a partnership with Paxos. The initiative was intended to allow customers to buy and sell crypto without managing their own wallets, while the bank would handle tax-related processes.

That service never reached customers. Regulatory objections and uncertainty ultimately prevented the planned rollout.

Four years later, Leumi is trying again under a significantly different market environment.

The regulatory landscape surrounding digital assets in Israel has evolved, while institutional infrastructure for trading and custody has matured considerably. Galaxy itself provides regulated digital-asset infrastructure to financial institutions, giving Leumi a more established technological and compliance framework for its second attempt.

The planned launch nevertheless remains subject to approval from the Bank of Israel, meaning the early-2027 target is not guaranteed.

The significance of Leumi’s announcement goes beyond the number of cryptocurrencies it plans to support.

For years, mainstream banks have largely treated cryptocurrency as an external financial product. Customers interested in Bitcoin typically had to open an account with a crypto exchange, transfer money from their bank and manage a separate wallet or custody arrangement.

Leumi’s model could remove much of that friction.

A customer could potentially buy Bitcoin from the same financial platform used to manage conventional investments, without moving assets between unrelated institutions. That creates a much more familiar experience for traditional investors and could substantially lower the barrier to entry for customers who are interested in crypto but reluctant to use specialized exchanges.

It also represents another step in the institutionalization of digital assets.

Banks do not necessarily need to become crypto exchanges themselves. Instead, partnerships with companies such as Galaxy allow them to combine their existing customer relationships, regulatory infrastructure and distribution networks with specialized blockchain technology.

The move also reflects the growing importance of digital assets in Israel.

According to The Block, Israel received an estimated $22 billion in on-chain crypto value during the 12 months through June 2025. Across the broader Middle East and North Africa region, on-chain activity exceeded $500 billion during the same period.

For Leumi, the opportunity is therefore both defensive and strategic. If customers increasingly want exposure to digital assets, banks that can provide regulated access may be able to retain those customers instead of watching them move part of their financial activity to crypto-native platforms.

Galaxy, meanwhile, gains an important reference customer for its institutional infrastructure strategy. A partnership with one of Israel’s largest banks demonstrates that traditional financial institutions are increasingly willing to rely on specialized crypto companies for execution and custody.

The planned Leumi launch is another indication that the relationship between banks and cryptocurrencies is changing.

Bitcoin, Ether and Solana would no longer exist only on dedicated crypto exchanges or within self-custody wallets. They could become investment products available through one of the country’s largest traditional financial institutions.

The service still has to clear the regulatory process, and its launch is months away. But if Leumi successfully introduces crypto trading in early 2027, the precedent could be significant.

Israel’s largest bank would effectively be bringing digital assets into the mainstream banking experience — not as an experimental side product, but as part of its core investment platform.

That could encourage other banks in Israel and elsewhere to follow, accelerating the convergence between traditional finance and the digital-asset economy.