Today, Israel’s stock exchange operator TASE unveiled its five-year strategic plan that includes a platform for digital assets and “venturing into crypto.” Last week it announced that it would help the Finance Ministry launch blockchain-based government bonds.

The plan “takes the development and management of innovative products and services to the next level; we will not only participate in the change, but we will try to lead it,” said TASE Executive Director Ittai Ben-Zeev.

Ben-Zeev spoke about tokenizing various asset classes and using DLT and other technologies to transform existing infrastructure. He is planning a trading, clearing and custody service, which is not unlike what SIX Digital Exchange has launched and is planned by Deutsche Börse.

TASE is also considering exporting its DLT, blockchain, and tokenization technologies to other small and medium-sized exchanges.

The assets it is considering include private markets, digital bonds as already announced, and other digital assets including cryptocurrencies, utility tokens, and NFTs.

At the same time, he identified the three challenges of regulatory uncertainty, substantial costs, and local and international competition.

The Israel Security Authority found that 52% of new investors allocate up to 10% of their portfolio to digital assets and 30% of investors have digital assets. Israelis are estimated to hold 10 billion shekels ($2.8 billion) in digital assets.

Meanwhile, TASE has already developed a blockchain-based securities lending solution, and its ‘lending pool’ was among the proprietary technologies it is considering licensing.