Israel Approves Launch of Shekel-Pegged Stablecoin

Israel has taken another step in regulating its cryptocurrency market with the approval of BILS, a shekel-pegged stablecoin by Bits of Gold. The Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority granted permission for the launch after a two-year pilot program on the Solana blockchain.

The reserve assets for the stablecoin will be held in designated and separate accounts within Israel. This move aims to create a direct bridge between the Israeli shekel and the global digital assets economy.

Bits of Gold's founder and CEO, Youval Rouach, sees BILS as an opportunity to enable real-time payments, on-chain trading, and programmable financial applications based on a regulated local currency. The launch of BILS comes at a time when the Israeli shekel has reached a 30-year high against the US dollar.