Israel’s Stock Exchange Launches Blockchain-Based Crypto Exchange

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) – Israel’s only stock and debt marketplace – is now planning to establish a blockchain and digital asset-based trading platform.

The exchange will focus on the development of distributed ledger and smart contract technologies while creating various types of tokenized digital assets.

Focus on Future Tech

Tel Aviv’s blockchain-related plans were detailed in 2023 to 2027 strategy document published on Monday. Among the four strategic goals listed, one was to “establish a platform for digital assets based on blockchain (DLT)”, and to “enter the world of crypto”.

“We see in the next five years a critical window of opportunity for the integration of the Israel Stock Exchange into the technological revolution that the world’s capital markets are going through,” CEO Itai Ben-Zeev wrote in the document.

Ben-Zeev added that the exchange will use its “home advantage” in Israel to help further develop and adopt fintech. Among its many considerations, it may begin shifting some of its existing technology infrastructure in the direction of blockchain and “innovative technologies” as it launches other digital asset products.

This is not a new concept. Several jurisdictions around the world are looking at enhancing existing market infrastructure with blockchain technology. The European Union, for example, has already approved a pilot for blockchain-based securities trading, much like Tel-Aviv announced on Monday.

Franklin CEO Jenny Johnson also praised blockchain technology in August as something that could revolutionize her entire industry, reducing costs through the use of smart contracts. “It’s also more secure from a cyber standpoint because of the distributed nature of it,” she said.

Israel open to crypto

Crypto-related business is slowly beginning to flourish within Israeli borders.

In March, Israel’s largest bank – Leumi – collaboration with Paxos to start offering Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services. A leading Israeli VC firm launched a Web 3 fund in June, and in September the country’s capital markets regulator granted Bits of Gold — a local crypto exchange — the crypto industry’s first capital markets license.

TASE is now working together with the Ministry of Finance to potentially issue a digital government bond. Units of the bond will be issued to the test participants’ electronic wallets and paid out in digital currency.