Selling crypto and getting shekels into your Israeli bank

Selling crypto is the part most guides skip, and it is exactly where most Israelis get stuck. According to figures presented in the Knesset, Israel has about 1.67 million crypto holders, yet only about ₪2.7 billion a year, roughly 4% of crypto-sourced money, reaches Israeli banks. The reason is not that you cannot sell. It is that the way you bought decides how easy it will be to get the money back into your account.

This guide walks through every way to convert crypto to shekels and cash out to an Israeli bank, with the fees for each, and explains the difference between a closed loop and an open garden. The bank side itself, what your bank may ask for and how to prepare a source-of-funds file, has its own page: crypto and Israeli banks.

Every way to sell crypto for shekels

There are five main routes, and they differ less in fee than in how much friction you will meet at the bank. The more recognisable and regulated the source, the more smoothly the money passes.

Put plainly: if your crypto already sits on Bits of Gold or Bit2C, selling takes minutes and the withdrawal a few days. If it sits on an international exchange or in a private wallet, there is an extra step, and it is worth choosing that step carefully.

Closed loop vs open garden: the idea that decides everything

Israeli banks and accountants talk about two tracks. A closed loop (גן סגור) means you bought with shekels on a licensed Israeli platform, held the coins there, sold there and withdrew to the same account the money came from. For the bank it is transparent end to end. An open garden (גן פתוח) is everything else: coins bought on CEX.IO, Binance or Kraken, held in a private wallet, or passed through DeFi. Expect more paperwork there.

The good news is that the line between the two is blurring. Bits of Gold lets you sell coins that arrive from an external wallet, and Altshuler Shaham’s Horizon is reported to run a service that accepts coins from regulated foreign exchanges. A Bank of Israel draft directive from 14 July 2026 would also replace the automatic scrutiny above ₪100,000 a year with a risk-based approach, under which money from licensed Israeli firms goes through a fast track. The draft is open for comment and expected to take effect about six months after final publication.

Selling crypto on Bits of Gold, step by step

Bits of Gold, licensed by the Capital Market Authority under no. 56716, is the most convenient way back to shekels. The process, according to its help centre:

1. Check your verification level

   One ID document is enough for the basic plan, but it caps you at ₪5,000 per six months. A second ID raises that to ₪50,000, and digital identity verification unlocks the unlimited plan.

2. If your coins are elsewhere, send them in

   Coin deposits are free. Selling coins that arrive from an external wallet costs 1.95% plus VAT. The platform supports nine coins, including BTC, ETH, SOL and USDC.

3. Sell to your bank account

   The minimum sale to a bank is ₪750. The fee starts at 1.95% and falls to about 1.2% with three-month volume, with a ₪43 minimum, and 18% VAT on top.

4. Withdraw shekels

   Withdrawals of ₪750 or more are free; below that they cost ₪15. Money arrives within three business days. Bits of Gold itself suggests checking your bank’s policy with your branch first.

5. Download your documents

   Signed transaction history, a balance report, an annual tax report and a closed-loop certificate: exactly what banks and the Tax Authority ask for.

Withdrawing shekels from Bit2C

Bit2C, legally Bitosi eToro Ltd and licensed under no. 72080, runs Israel’s only shekel order book. Selling with a limit order on Bit2C Pro costs 1.25% at entry level, down to 0.05% at high volumes. The instant interface is much pricier, 5% and lower. Client money is held in a trust account at Discount Bank.

Withdrawals go only to one Israeli bank account registered in your name. The minimum is ₪180, the cap is ₪700,000 per 30 days, and the fee table shows ₪80 in the shekel-withdrawal column. Bit2C’s own FAQ warns that "some banks may block" deposits to or withdrawals from it. The coin range is narrow, BTC, ETH, LTC and USDC only, so anything else has to be converted first, which is a taxable event. Since Q2 2026 the company has been owned by eToro.

From an international exchange to an Israeli account

CEX.IO, Kraken, Binance and the other international exchanges have no shekel support and no Israeli licence. There are two ways to bring money home. The first is to send the coins to Bits of Gold and sell there, for 1.95% plus VAT plus the network fee. That turns the proceeds into money from an Israeli platform, but it does not erase the question of where the coins came from, so keep your foreign exchange statements.

The second is to sell on the exchange for dollars and withdraw by SWIFT to a foreign-currency account at an Israeli bank. You pay the exchange’s fee plus your bank’s SWIFT and conversion charges, and you will almost certainly be asked for a source of funds, because the counterparty is a foreign provider not supervised in Israel. On Binance there is no shekel route via P2P either, since the shekel was removed in 2022. For large sums, from ₪250,000, consider the Bits of Gold Premium service, which offers a dedicated quote and handles tax vouchers, or Bit2C’s OTC desk. More in OTC and large trades.

Selling for cash, and why P2P is risky

At Bitcoin Change branches you can sell BTC, ETH and BCH for banknotes in multiples of ₪100, at 7%: to receive ₪100 you send coins worth ₪107. The operator’s pages contradict each other on USDT, so ask first. Its ₪10,000 daily limit and the cash law both apply. Details on buying and selling crypto for cash.

Selling on P2P looks simple: someone buys your USDT and wires shekels to your account. In practice it is the riskiest route. On 5 October 2026 the median OKX bid for USDT was about 10.8% below the market rate, while on Bybit and Bitget some buyers offered more than market.

A buyer paying above market is a red flag for triangulation fraud: the money comes from a victim’s account, gets reversed, and your account is frozen. More in shekel P2P.

Tax and reporting when you sell

Every sale of crypto, and every swap of one coin for another, is a taxable event under Income Tax Circular 05/2018. The gain in shekels is subject to 25% capital gains tax for individuals and 30% for a substantial shareholder, and a surtax applies above annual income of about ₪721,560. Losses can offset capital gains, and very frequent trading may be classed as business income.

A few practical tools: Bits of Gold issues an annual tax report similar to Form 867, and Bit2C runs a pilot that pays tax straight from your account for 1% or ₪2,000. If your money is stuck on a foreign exchange, a temporary procedure from December 2023 lets you pay the tax directly from that account to the state. The voluntary-disclosure procedure that covered crypto closed on 31 August 2026, and from 2027 Israel is due to start exchanging crypto account data under the OECD’s CARF standard. See crypto tax in Israel and voluntary disclosure.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Bits of Gold — fee schedule · updated August 2026
2. Bits of Gold — payment methods, minimums and withdrawals · updated August 2026
3. Bit2C — fees · checked October 2026
4. Bit2C — FAQ (withdrawals, single account, trust account) · checked October 2026
5. Bits of Gold — data-security incident notice · August 2026
6. Bizportal — Bank of Israel risk-based draft directive · 14 July 2026

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