Netanyahu says he has asked for a blockchain plan so Israel can bypass possible banking sanctions, and warns US aid will not last

Israel's prime minister has put blockchain on the table as a hedge against financial isolation. In a Channel 10 interview broadcast on Friday, October 23, Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel could face banking sanctions and said the country must prepare an economy able to work around them. Asked whether blockchain was one such alternative, he answered, according to a translation of the Hebrew transcript cited by The Block: "One of them, certainly. I have already asked for a plan to be prepared for that." He also pointed to currencies that can bypass sanctions.

The remarks were short on specifics. The Block noted that Netanyahu did not say who would prepare the plan, which blockchain or currencies it would involve, or when it could be implemented. In the same interview he said US military aid would not continue indefinitely, telling viewers that America has changed and that the end of that support was only a matter of time, per i24NEWS and The Block. The Block also reported that he pointed to an extra 400 billion shekels, about $129 billion, that he said he had allocated to defence over the coming years.

The crypto industry answered the same day. Nir Hirschman, who heads the Crypto Companies Forum, said in a post on X that the technology offers no haven for hidden money, that public blockchains let transactions be tracked, and that the sector was ready to work with the government and regulators, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Maariv.

What happens next: no timetable or official document has been published, so the first test is whether any ministry or the Bank of Israel confirms work on such a plan.