Buying crypto in Tel Aviv: King George 50 and the city where it began

Look for a bitcoin ATM in Tel Aviv and every road leads to one address: the Bitcoin Change branch at King George Street 50. It is the only crypto cash point in the city, a staffed shop with a two-way machine where you can buy crypto in Tel Aviv with shekel notes, or sell it for them. Yet Tel Aviv is also where Israel’s first bitcoin ATM stood, where the industry’s biggest names keep their offices and where the conferences happen, all within a few streets of each other.

Below you will find the desk’s details and what a first visit involves, a short history of physical crypto in the city, practical notes for tourists and new immigrants, and what to do when the desk is shut. Everything was checked against the operator’s website on 5 October 2026.

The King George 50 desk: address, hours and how it works

The branch opens Sunday to Thursday from 10:00 to 20:00 and on Friday from 09:00 to 14:00, and is closed on Shabbat. OpenStreetMap lists longer hours, but we go by the operator’s own site, and we suggest calling before you set off. Inside there are staff and a Lamassu machine that takes its rate from the Kraken exchange: a screen shows the market price, and the machine shows the shekel price with the fee built in.

The fee is 7% on both buying and selling, the same at every branch in the network. The operator’s own example: put in ₪100 and you receive bitcoin worth ₪93. Customers are capped at ₪10,000 a day, ₪20,000 a week and ₪30,000 a month, and the minimum purchase is ₪20. If you sell, cash comes out in multiples of ₪100. The machine handles BTC, ETH, BCH and USDT.

Your first visit, step by step

1. Bring two ID documents

   An Israeli ID card plus a passport or driving licence, both valid. Staff photograph them.

2. Fill in a short “getting to know you” form

   The operator says this is required under Israel’s anti-money-laundering rules. Later visits are quicker.

3. Have a wallet ready on your phone

   The coins go to your own wallet, not to an account at the desk. If you don’t have one, staff can help you install it. Our wallet guide.

4. Scan, insert cash, receive coins

   The machine shows the amount before you confirm. Keep the receipt: you will want it for your tax return and for your bank.

Where it all started: from the 2014 machine to King George Street

Ahuzat Bayit Street, opposite the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, is where bitcoin in Israel began. In 2013 architect Yoni Shemesh turned his studio into the Bitcoin Embassy, a meeting place that hosted weekly trading meetups and security workshops. In 2014 it also housed the country’s first bitcoin ATM, operated by Bits of Gold.

1. 2013The Bitcoin Embassy opens

   At Ahuzat Bayit 1, facing the stock exchange. Its website still describes it as an open-source community active since 2013.

2. 2014Israel’s first bitcoin ATM

   A Bits of Gold machine inside the Embassy. The same year a company called Bitbox brought in a two-way Robocoin machine.

3. 2015Bitbox goes quiet

   Inactive from September 2015. Robocoin itself no longer exists.

4. 2017Bitcoin Change is founded

   In July 2017. Its first branch was in the “mythological” building at Dizengoff 99; it later moved to King George Street.

5. 2023The first ETHTLV

   1–9 February 2023, with more than 25 side events.

6. 2025Building Blocks 25 at Jaffa Port

   27 March 2025, during ETHTLV Week, with more than 800 attendees.

There is no sign of a machine at the Embassy today. OpenStreetMap tags it as a community centre that accepts bitcoin, last checked in December 2025, and its website mentions Socratic seminars and full-node workshops rather than opening hours. If you head to Ahuzat Bayit hoping to find an ATM, you will need to carry on to King George Street.

Companies and community: what else the city has

Company profiles list Bits of Gold at that same historic address, Ahuzat Bayit 1. It describes itself as the first crypto firm to win a permanent licence from the Capital Market Authority (number 56716), and it also issues BILS, the shekel stablecoin. One thing to be clear on: it takes no cash and has no customer counter. You use it online, by bank transfer, Israeli card or standing order.

Fireblocks, the digital-asset custody infrastructure company that also secures BILS, has its headquarters on Yitzhak Sadeh Street. Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management houses an institute for applied blockchain research. On the community side, besides the Embassy, the Tel Aviv Makers hackerspace on Zalman Shocken Street is tagged as accepting bitcoin, last checked in January 2025. Older map entries for local businesses that take bitcoin have not been re-checked for years, so we have left them out.

Jaffa Port has hosted the big events of recent years, ETHTLV and Building Blocks, backed by StarkWare, Fireblocks and Collider. We found no announcement of a 2026 edition, so don’t plan a trip around an annual conference.

Tourists, olim and foreign workers

Tel Aviv is where most visitors to Israel start, with Ben Gurion Airport some 15–20 km away. If you arrive holding crypto and want shekels, or the other way round, King George Street gives you a real person to deal with. The catch is paperwork: first-time customers must show two ID documents, and a tourist with only a passport may be turned away. The operator has not told us which second document it accepts from visitors, so call first.

A July 2024 Walla Finance report noted that foreign workers were unexpectedly heavy users of Israel’s crypto ATMs, mainly to send money home. If that is you, and especially if you have no convenient bank account, the staffed desk is the legal cash option. Foreign comparison sites also list private “cash-for-crypto” offers in Tel Aviv, swapping coins for dollar notes. We do not link to them: they hold no Capital Market Authority licence, nobody checks where the coins you receive have been, and the meetup itself is a risk.

New immigrants, whether English, Russian or French speakers, often arrive with an account on a foreign exchange. The decision that matters is not where to buy but how you will get money back into an Israeli bank account. Crypto and Israeli banks.

Personal safety in a city with serious money

The case that echoed loudest around Gush Dan last year happened in Herzliya, but the indictment was filed by the Tel Aviv District Attorney. In September 2025 three attackers waited in a crypto trader’s stairwell, stabbed him and forced him to transfer about $547,000 in bitcoin and roughly $42,000 in USDT. There is nothing Tel Aviv-specific about it, but it is a reminder of three simple rules.

When the desk is closed or busy: Ramat Gan, Rishon and online

The nearest alternative is Tuval 36 in Ramat Gan, about 2 km in a straight line from King George Street, in the Diamond Exchange district. Note that it closes at 13:00 on Fridays. To the south, Rothschild 1 in Rishon LeZion is about 13 km away. For residents of Holon and Bat Yam, the Tel Aviv and Rishon desks are roughly the same distance.

On Shabbat, with every desk closed, online is all that is left. If you buy regularly, a bank transfer to a licensed Israeli platform is far cheaper than 7%. All 11 bitcoin ATMs in Israel · Buying bitcoin with cash.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Bitcoin Change — branches, fees, limits and company history · Checked 5 October 2026
2. Bitcoin Embassy, Tel Aviv · Checked 5 October 2026
3. The Defiant — Building Blocks 25 at Jaffa Port (March 2025) · Secondary source
4. Walla Finance — crypto ATMs in Israel and foreign workers (July 2024, Hebrew) · Secondary source
5. Decrypt — Tel Aviv indictment in the Herzliya wrench attack · Secondary source

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