Leumi First Israeli Bank to Offer Crypto Trading in 2027

A year and a half separates the announcement from the launch date, leaving room for internal testing and any regulatory steps Israeli authorities require. Neither company said which approvals, if any, are pending, nor whether the launch date is tied to a specific rule-making deadline.

GalaxyOne Institutional is the vehicle Galaxy has been selling to banks and asset managers that want to offer digital assets without building a trading desk in-house. The custody piece, which goes through GK8, keeps asset safekeeping with Galaxy rather than with a third party. The arrangement bundles execution and custody under one vendor, so Leumi does not have to contract separately for trading and safekeeping.

The long runway gives Leumi time to integrate the trading section into its app and to work through the compliance steps that Israeli banking rules will require. It also gives Galaxy a retail-bank client in a country where no other lender has announced a similar plan.

Leumi's decision puts digital assets inside the main banking app instead of in a separate product. The service will reach two sets of customers, Leumi's account holders and Pepper's mobile-first users; the announcement does not say whether eligibility or pricing will differ between them. Pepper users will access the feature through Leumi Trade, the same app used by the parent bank's clients.

The announcement lists no approval timeline, and neither Leumi nor Galaxy gave a specific month for the early-2027 launch.