Israel Approves First Shekel-Pegged Stablecoin BILS by Bits of Gold

Israel's Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority has greenlit the launch of a shekel-pegged stablecoin by the virtual exchange Bits of Gold. In a Monday notice, the Israeli regulator said that it had granted approval of the BILS stablecoin after a two-year pilot program of the stablecoin on the Solana blockchain.

Source: LinkedIn

According to the announcement, the stablecoin's reserve assets will be held in Israel in "designated and separate accounts." The project was part of a larger effort by the Israel Tax Authority and the country's Finance ministry to regulate the crypto industry, including by allowing certain stablecoin activities. "BILS creates a direct bridge between the Israeli shekel and the global digital assets economy, enabling real-time payments, on-chain trading and programmable financial applications based on a regulated local currency," said Bits of Gold founder and CEO Youval Rouach.

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As of Monday, the global stablecoin market capitalization was more than $320 billion, dominated by US dollar-pegged stablecoins like Tether's USDt (USDT). The launch of BILS, as one of the first Israeli shekel-pegged coins, came as the fiat currency was at a 30-year high against the US dollar, at 1 ILS to 0.34 USD at the time of publication.

Stablecoin yield under scrutiny in US amid market structure debate

In the United States, lawmakers continue to debate provisions within a digital asset market structure bill over stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, and ethics concerns related to US President Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest with the industry. The legislation, effectively stalled in the US Senate since July 2025, requires a markup by the chamber's banking committee before a potential vote.