Bank Leumi, one of the biggest banks in Israel, will start to offer crypto trading through its digital platform Pepper Invest, the company said in a press release on Friday.
Bank Leumi is offering the service in partnership with New York-based custody and trading platform Paxos and will be the first bank in Israel to offer crypto trading services to its clients.
Customers will be able to buy, hold and sell bitcoin BTC$89,313.58 and ether ETH$2,954.42 initially in transactions starting from 50 shekels ($15.49), Leumi said.
No start date has been provided as of now and the move is subject to regulatory approval.
"Pepper will collect tax according to the guidelines of the Israeli Tax Authority so that customers will not need to manage tax complexities," Leumi said in the announcement.
Reuters had earlier reported that Leumi will start to offer crypto trading.
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
Brian Armstrong returns from World Economic Forum with message: traditional finance is taking crypto seriously
What to know:
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said a top executive at one of the world’s 10 largest banks told him crypto is now the bank’s “number one priority” and an “existential” issue.
At Davos, Armstrong highlighted tokenization of assets and stablecoins as major themes, arguing they could broaden access to investments for billions while threatening to bypass traditional banks.
He described the Trump administration as the most crypto-forward government globally, backing efforts like the CLARITY Act, and predicted that AI agents will increasingly use stablecoins for payments outside conventional banking rails.