One of the top two big banks in Israel (Bank Leumi) has announced a new product offering in partnership with a US-based crypto firm, Paxos. The partnership will enable Bank Leumi to offer crypto trade products to its customers.
Bank Leumi’s Crypto Offering Still Awaits Regulatory Approval
However, all crypto trade transactions have a minimum amount of 55 shekels per transaction (or about $15.5) and will be done through Pepper Invest, a subsidiary of Bank Leumi. Also, only the top two digital assets will be available for trading and completing transactions. The bank announced that more digital assets would be added in the nearest period.
On Thursday, a Reuters report claims that the regulatory authorities are yet to approve Bank Leumi’s crypto trading offering through its subsidiary (Pepper Invest). The report also claimed that the bank is yet to fix a launch date for its new offering.
Tax Benefits For Pepper Invest Users
The report also stated that Pepper Invest would be responsible for tax collection and other tax issues for its crypto trading clients, as stated in the nation’s tax law. Reuters further claimed that it wouldn’t be compulsory for users to download a digital wallet before they can trade digital assets on the Pepper Invest trading platform.
Part of Bank Leumi’s announcement regarding their new crypto offering states that “the technology on our digital trading platform makes it easy for users to convert crypto to fiat and vice versa. Thus, making our platform a better option for crypto trading than other platforms that allow deposits or withdrawals via crypto or fiat.”
Pepper Invest chief executive, Uri Natan, added that “we are excited about our status as the first bank-owned crypto trading platform in Israel and one of the few globally. More importantly, the features we offer on a trading platform are unrivaled in and outside Israel. Two of those standout features are that users won’t need to worry about tax issues (we would take care of that aspect for them), and they can trade the crypto market without downloading a wallet.”
Israel’s Crypto Tax Rule
Israel’s crypto tax rule states that taxes must be paid on any crypto transaction since they are legalized forms of settling payments. Nonetheless, Bank Leumi’s new crypto offering, which includes crypto trading on the top two digital assets, would facilitate crypto adoption in the country.
Bank Leumi follows in the footsteps of other international banks (especially those in the USA, such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan) that have recently launched one crypto offering. More institutional banks will likely launch crypto-related offerings before the end of the year.
The entrance of banking giants into the crypto space is proof of the fast-rising adoption of cryptos globally. Today’s data from Coinmarketcap shows that the overall evaluation of the crypto market is now more than $2 trillion. The uptick in crypto prices in the past 24 hours might be one of the reasons for the rise in the crypto market cap.
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