Israel approves BILS, its first regulated digital shekel stablecoin built on Solana with Fireblocks custody and EY oversight

Israel’s financial regulator has approved BILS, the country’s first regulated shekel‑backed stablecoin, to be issued by crypto financial services firm Bits of Gold on the Solana blockchain, with Fireblocks providing institutional custody infrastructure and EY (Ernst & Young) overseeing auditing and controls. BILS is fully backed 1:1 by the New Israeli Shekel (NIS) and is structured as a regulated financial product rather than a central bank digital currency (CBDC), positioning it as a privately issued but tightly supervised digital shekel. According to Israeli business outlet Calcalist and other reports, Bits of Gold received approval from the Israel Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority after running BILS for about two years in a regulatory sandbox that tested its compliance, risk management, and technical setup. The stablecoin is issued on Solana, with Fireblocks supplying institutional‑grade infrastructure for issuance and custody, and EY advising on process design, transparency, and auditability. The project also incorporates zero‑knowledge proof (ZKP) privacy technology via QEDIT to enable selective disclosure and privacy‑preserving transactions while still meeting regulatory requirements. Policy‑wise, BILS is being aligned with the Bank of Israel’s draft principles for stablecoins and with emerging global standards that require 1:1 backing by high‑quality liquid assets, segregation of reserves, robust AML/KYC controls, and regular third‑party attestations. This makes BILS distinct from both unregulated global stablecoins like Tether and from a hypothetical digital shekel CBDC, which the Bank of Israel has explored separately through its “Digital Shekel Challenge” but has not yet decided to issue. The approval of BILS is seen as a test case for how a mid‑sized developed economy can integrate a regulated private stablecoin into its payment and financial system under clear statutory rules, and it may serve as a reference model for other jurisdictions considering similar frameworks.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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