Israel Discount Bank said Wednesday that, beginning Nov. 26, eligible customers will be able to buy, hold and sell bitcoin and ether directly inside the bank's mobile app — a launch that, if it stays on schedule, would put the Tel Aviv-listed lender ahead of much larger rival Bank Leumi in offering crypto trading.

In a Nov. 11 statement, the bank described the service as a first for Israel's banking system. The two digital assets will trade alongside stocks and bonds in the app, meaning customers will not need to open an account at an outside exchange or manage a separate digital wallet.

Eligibility is limited to private, rather than corporate, customers. Account holders must be Israeli residents, aged 18 or older, and already set up for securities trading, subject to the bank's terms.

“For the first time in the banking system, Discount Bank will allow trading in digital currencies directly from the bank account in a simple and secure manner, without the need for complex dedicated digital wallets,” Avi Levi, CEO of Discount Group, said in the statement. “This is a first step toward establishing advanced technological infrastructure in the digital currency space and developing the bank's capabilities in this area.”

The rollout was led by Elad Fisher, head of the bank's financial markets division. Coins purchased through the service will be held in bank-provided wallets built on infrastructure from Fireblocks, a provider of digital-asset custody and blockchain infrastructure technology.

JUST IN: $150 billion Israel Discount Bank will become the 1st bank in Israel to let customers buy, hold and sell Bitcoin Adoption! pic.twitter.com/gwKBy17cSf — Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) November 11, 2026

A 2% commission and a wallet that does not leave the bank

The bank's product page lists a 2% commission on purchases and sales made in the app, excluding any foreign-exchange conversion. Custody fees are waived for six months from the Nov. 26 launch, after which they run 0.25% per quarter.

Trading is open Sunday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Israel time, matching Israel's Sunday-to-Friday workweek, and only immediate orders are accepted. The minimum purchase is 0.01 of a coin. Holdings appear immediately in the customer's securities portfolio, with cash settling the next business day in U.S. dollars; conversion into shekels takes place only at the customer's request.

For now, the service operates as a closed system. Bitcoin and ether bought through Discount cannot be sent to an outside wallet, and coins held elsewhere cannot be transferred in, although the bank said it may revisit transfers later. The bank also warns of unusual risk, high volatility and the possibility of a total loss, and notes that the coins are not legal tender and do not carry the same protections as securities.

Alongside convenience, what Discount is selling is tax treatment. Capital gains and losses on the coins can be offset automatically against the rest of the customer's investment portfolio, with tax withheld at source at a 25% rate on profits, the bank said. Sale proceeds land directly in the customer's bank account, without the source-of-funds questionnaires that have often accompanied money coming back from crypto platforms.

Leumi announced first, but is aiming for 2027

Discount is not the first Israeli bank to promise bitcoin trading. Bank Leumi, the country's largest lender, announced a plan as early as March 2022 to offer bitcoin and ether through Pepper Invest with Paxos, a project that never reached a full-scale launch.

In August, Leumi and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) announced that Leumi and Pepper customers would be able to buy, hold and sell bitcoin, ether and Solana in the Leumi Trade app, with a launch expected in early 2027. That announcement billed Leumi as the first bank in Israel to offer such a service.

If Discount opens on Nov. 26 as planned, it would get there first — though Leumi still intends to offer Solana, which Discount is not including at the start. Discount said it may later consider adding other assets.

The regulatory backdrop is also shifting. In an Oct. 7 circular, the Bank of Israel's Banking Supervision Department amended Directive 411 to say that a bank may not refuse payment services solely because the funds come from virtual-currency activity, a change that takes effect May 1, 2027. The amendment does not authorize banks to offer crypto trading — Discount's rollout runs instead through the bank's existing securities-trading framework, the same infrastructure that places coin holdings directly into customers' investment portfolios — but it is part of a broader effort, first floated in a July draft, to widen how banks handle crypto-related payments.

The test now is whether Discount hits its Nov. 26 date, and whether customers accept a closed wallet and a 2% commission in exchange for bank custody and automatic tax withholding. Leumi still has early 2027 to catch up.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.