Bank Leumi Partners With Galaxy Digital to Offer Bitcoin, Ether and Solana Trading
Key Takeaways
- •Bank Leumi will become the first Israeli bank to offer digital asset trading, allowing Leumi and Pepper customers to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Ether and Solana through the Leumi Trade app beginning in early 2027.
- •Galaxy Digital will provide trading through its GalaxyOne Institutional prime-brokerage platform and custody via its infrastructure platform formerly known as GK8, which it acquired from Celsius's bankruptcy estate in 2022.
- •The partnership signals a shift in Israel's banking sector, where lenders have long treated digital assets cautiously and in some cases refused crypto-linked transfers over money-laundering concerns, pushing investors toward foreign platforms.
- •The deal follows Galaxy's $85 million net loss in the second quarter, even as its digital assets business generated $66 million in adjusted gross profit, up 34% from the prior quarter.
- •The announcement did not disclose fees for the planned service or indicate whether additional tokens would be offered in the future.
Israel's Bank Leumi has partnered with Galaxy Digital to let customers trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) through the bank's investment platform, with the service expected to launch in early 2027.
Announcing the deal on Friday, the companies said customers of Leumi and Pepper, the bank's mobile banking arm, will be able to buy, hold and sell the three cryptocurrencies through a dedicated section of the Leumi Trade app. Leumi and Galaxy said the rollout would make Leumi the first Israeli bank to offer digital asset trading services to its customers. According to Leumi, the bank serves millions of customers across its retail and business operations. The step marks a shift for Israel's banking sector, where lenders have long treated digital assets cautiously, in some cases refusing transfers linked to crypto exchanges over money-laundering concerns, which pushed many local investors toward foreign platforms.
Under the arrangement, Leumi will use GalaxyOne Institutional for trading and related services, while Galaxy's custody infrastructure platform, formerly known as GK8, will support the bank's digital asset infrastructure. Galaxy acquired the GK8 custody technology in 2022 from the bankruptcy estate of crypto lender Celsius, and GalaxyOne Institutional is the prime-brokerage platform the firm introduced for institutional clients in 2025.
The partnership comes after Galaxy reported an $85 million net loss in the second quarter, which it attributed largely to declining digital asset prices. Despite the loss, its digital assets business generated $66 million in adjusted gross profit, up 34% from the previous quarter. The Leumi deal also lands as traditional banks in other markets have moved to add crypto services for retail clients, a trend that accelerated after US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds launched in January 2024, and as Israeli policymakers advance draft legislation setting out how digital assets would be regulated. The announcement did not detail fees for the planned service or say whether additional tokens would be offered later.
Galaxy Digital, founded and led by Mike Novogratz, began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker GLXY in May 2025. Its shares were trading at $21.38 on Friday morning, up about 2% on the day but down roughly 25% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance data.
