Israel Approves Shekel-Pegged Stablecoin BILS After Two-Year Solana Pilot

Israel greenlit the shekel-pegged stablecoin BILS, with trading on local platforms expected to open at 1 ILS to 1 USD parity. The approval involves a two-year pilot on Solana (SOL), where transaction data recorded 1,000 transactions per second at peak, and reserves will be held in a segregated account to ensure solvency. CEO Youval Rouach describes BILS as a direct bridge between the Israeli shekel and the global digital-asset ecosystem, enabling programmable financial services such as real-time payments and on-chain transactions.

The stablecoin will operate under the local currency ticker ISILS, allowing investors to track its peg against major fiat benchmarks like USDT and USDC, which currently hold market caps of $4.2 billion and $27.5 billion respectively. Movements in the broader crypto market, where SOL recently gained 12 percent over a two-week period, could influence initial liquidity depth for ISILS as institutions compare its mechanics to existing dollar-pegged alternatives. This development integrates stablecoin use into regulated financial structures, aligning with ongoing policy updates from Israel’s Finance Ministry and Tax Authority to monitor settlement finality and reserve transparency.

What to watch next is the rollout of on-chain payment rails and the measurable impact on cross-border transaction volume once BILS enters live trading.