Israeli’s crypto community toasted to good news after the country’s largest broker for Bitcoin and Ethereum was allowed to keep its account with the country’s largest bank. This was decided by Israel’s Supreme Court after overturning a district court’s earlier decision that allowed Bank Leumi to shut down the broker’s account.
The broker- Bits of Gold- is no stranger to trouble with Bank Leumi, and it is not the first time that Israel’s highest courts have sided with the broker either. An earlier court decision had directed Bank Leumi, which is the largest bank in the land, to continue working with Bits of Gold after an earlier altercation, a subsequent crackdown on Israeli banks serving gambling led to a new problem for Bits of Gold. This is because Bank Leumi had made a decision to classify crypto exchanges under gambling.
The recent move to maintain the Bits of Gold’s account by the Supreme Court led to celebration among the country’s crypto faithful. Yuval Roash, the Bits of Gold CEO hailed the Supreme Court decision as not only a good move for the exchange, but also a big win for the crypto community in the country.
“This is an exciting moment for us as a company and for the community in general. We worked hard to set up a company which met regulatory requirements, in a new industry, and those efforts paid off. I am proud to be a part of this flourishing industry and push it towards the right regulation.”
If the Supreme Court decision had gone against bits of Gold, it would have been crushing since the broker is the country’s largest and most active mover of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Tel-Aviv based broker caters to Israeli crypto markets and plans to expand to Europe in the near future. They also have a website in both English, and Hebrew.
According to a crunchbase report;
“The company has a pool of more than 50,000 registered customers, which is constantly growing (an increase of 250% in 2017 only). Clients include private investors, high-tech companies, financial companies, investment houses, hedge funds, non-profit organizations and more.”
The broker’s customers can use bank transfer, credit cards, and cash to exchange USD, ILS, and Euro for BTC and ETH. The move to keep the broker’s account open has undoubtedly calmed a lot of nerves in the country and possibly sets the way for further crypto developments in the middle-eastern country.
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