Israel

A number of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency holders in Israel have come out to request local banks unveil policies about digital currency accounts. They are seeking for legal action against traditional banking institutions for their snub to open accounts for clients wanting to deposit cash from digital asset sales. The bitcoin holders are now trying to demand the Bank of Israel and other local financial institutions to make their policies about cryptoasset.

The two brothers from Jerusalem, Israeli identified as Eli Gigi (31 years of age) and Assaf Gigi (21), have been arrested on suspicion of being responsible for the infamous Bitfinex hack that cost the cryptocurrency exchange a loss of over $100 million, according to the investigators of the national cyber unit at Lahav 433, who started the investigations back in 2017.

The Lightning Network (LN) torch cost has crossed borders to Israel after being posted by an Iranian in a symbolic sign of peace amongst these two countries. This historic phenomenon only shows that bitcoin is indeed a political and borderless cash experience.

A Blockchain and Crypto pioneer, Nick Szabo – many believe that he could be the anonymous developer of Bitcoin (BTC), Satoshi Nakamoto – said that central banks will more than likely turn to digital currencies to support their reserves, while speaking at the Israel Bitcoin Summit at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday, January 8, 2018.

Switzerland's Federal Department of Finance wants the Israeli Ministry of Finance to permit Swiss banks and other major financial institutions to trade funds in the modern country in the Middle East. Israel is hoped to reply back to Switzerland within a year.

On Aug 26, the Jerusalem Post wrote a very good story about the chances of Israel adopting a state-backed crypto just like Venezuela did a few days ago,  although for completely different reasons.

A giant Israeli cryptocurrency exchange known as Bits of Gold has agreed to share all customers' transaction particulars with the tax authority of the country.

Spot.IM, an internet company with its offices in Tel Aviv is in high gear negotiations with the Israel Securities Authority (ISA). Spot.IM is not part  of crypto ecosystem but more of the internet industry. The talks are primarily focusing on felicitous exchange rate that is an important matter for making this work and there are a lot of hope that the two parties will reach at the equilibrium point of agreements just with in the next month or beyond and this will push the plans to go further.

The major financial market regulator the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority has created a fintech draft which is aimed at helping to track and control suspicious cryptocurrency activity, according to a local news company’s post published yesterday, May 28.