Bitcoin (BTC) Trading to Launch at Bank Leumi in Early 2027

Bitcoin News

Israel's largest lender, Bank Leumi, has selected Galaxy Digital as the infrastructure partner for a planned retail cryptocurrency service that will initially support Bitcoin (BTC), Ether and Solana. The bank said on Aug. 14 that the offering is expected to go live in early 2027 and will make Bank Leumi the first Israeli bank to let customers buy, hold and sell digital assets directly through its own platform. The service is being built around GalaxyOne Institutional, Galaxy's trading and services stack for banks and asset managers, and will be accessible through the lender's capital-markets application as well as its mobile banking brand, PEPPER. The announcement positions the move as a regulated alternative to standalone crypto platforms, with the bank placing Bitcoin and major smart-contract assets inside an existing banking relationship rather than sending clients to a separate exchange. The initial list is limited to the largest liquid assets, while the bank has signaled that additional tokens may follow if client demand supports them.

The project revives a strategy that Bank Leumi first disclosed in 2022 before putting it aside. Its return reflects a broader shift in how regulated lenders view crypto products: not as a speculative side business, but as a customer-facing service that can be embedded in familiar banking rails. In the official announcement, Maya Ravia, head of strategy at Bank Leumi, said digital assets are becoming part of the global financial system and that the bank's role is to allow clients to access them within a reliable, secure and regulated framework. Galaxy Israel CEO Lior Lamesh framed the partnership around early movement, arguing that banks that move first will help define the next era of finance. The remarks point to a competitive calculation: once custody, compliance and trading are integrated into a bank's app, the institution can control the user experience instead of ceding it to crypto-native firms. Local adoption has also been supported by geopolitical uncertainty, which has pushed some investors toward digital assets as an alternative store of value.

The retail mechanics are central to the plan. Customers of Bank Leumi and its digital bank PEPPER are expected to access the service through a dedicated digital-asset area inside the Leumi Trade application, rather than through a separate wallet or external exchange account. The initial lineup includes Bitcoin, Ether and Solana, with the bank leaving open the possibility of adding other major altcoin assets later. Galaxy will supply the trading layer through GalaxyOne Institutional, while custody will be supported by Galaxy's institutional custody infrastructure, formerly known as GK8. That division of labor is designed to keep the client-facing relationship inside the bank while outsourcing the complex parts of execution and secure asset control. The announcement did not disclose fees, commissions or customer eligibility requirements, leaving the economics and customer requirements for the Israeli product undecided as the banks prepare for the 2027 rollout. That opacity will be a key test once pricing becomes public.

For Galaxy, the agreement provides a regulated banking channel in Israel and extends its effort to sell infrastructure to traditional financial institutions rather than only serving crypto-native clients. For Bank Leumi, the bet is that a large segment of customers will prefer to trade and custody assets inside a supervised banking app instead of opening accounts with standalone crypto exchanges. The structure places the bank in direct control of onboarding, compliance and customer support, while Galaxy handles institutional execution and custody technology. This mirrors a wider pattern in which financial institutions are bringing crypto access inside customer platforms instead of leaving it to dedicated crypto venues. The commercial terms remain undisclosed, and the service has not yet opened to customers. Pricing will shape uptake. Even so, the move puts pressure on other Israeli banks to define their own digital-asset strategies before the first-mover service reaches the market over the coming quarters.

COINOTAG's analysis is that the announcement matters less as a short-term demand event and more as a distribution milestone for Bitcoin. The official release confirms that the first phase covers BTC, Ether and Solana, uses GalaxyOne Institutional and Galaxy custody formerly GK8, and targets early 2027 through Leumi Trade and PEPPER. It does not set fees or eligibility, so the immediate impact depends on execution. Bank distribution also does not eliminate bear-market risk or the distance from a prior all-time high. Still, if one of Israel's largest banks places crypto inside its regulated app, the boundary between banking and exchange access becomes more blurred.