Trump's Board of Peace Explores Dollar Stablecoin for Gaza

Officials advising Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" are exploring a dollar-backed stablecoin for Gaza, according to a Financial Times report published Monday.

The proposal aims to restore financial activity in the enclave, where two years of Israeli military operations have destroyed most banking infrastructure — and to cut Hamas off from hard currency.

"The idea is to dry Gaza from cash so Hamas can't generate any," a person familiar with the discussions told the FT.

A broken payments system

The Palestine Monetary Authority serves as the central bank for both the occupied West Bank and Gaza, but it cannot issue its own currency. The formal currency in the Palestinian territories is Israel's shekel.

Since the war began in 2023, access to physical shekels in Gaza has collapsed. Cash machines have been destroyed or closed. Israel has blocked deliveries of new currency to the strip.

This has left traders and brokers in control of an increasingly limited supply of hard currency, with many charging exorbitant fees to disburse it. The squeeze has pushed a growing number of Gazans toward electronic payment systems — a shift the stablecoin proposal would accelerate.

"This will not be a 'Gaza Coin' or a new Palestinian currency, but a means to allow Gazans to transact digitally," a person familiar with the project told the FT.

Proponents argue that increasing the scope of digital transactions would allow commerce to continue without being "beholden to the whims of the Israeli government."

Who's leading it

The project is being led by Liran Tancman, an Israeli tech entrepreneur and former co-founder of Israel's Cyber Command. Tancman is now working as an unpaid adviser to the Board of Peace.

At a Washington meeting last week, Tancman said Gaza's new Palestinian administration was building "a secure digital backbone, an open platform enabling e-payments, financial services, e-learning, and healthcare with user control over data."

The Board of Peace, established at the World Economic Forum in January, is chaired by Trump. Members include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, envoy Steve Witkoff, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and World Bank President Ajay Banga.

The fragmentation risk

But others involved in the discussions raised concerns that a stablecoin could further detach the economies of Gaza and the West Bank — both of which Palestinians seek as part of a future state.

"It will be much more difficult to maintain economic links between Gaza and the West Bank if they have no means of easy payment between the two, so that Gaza would be almost like a self-contained economy," one person familiar with the talks said. "That would be a concern."

The person familiar with the project disputed this. "No one is trying to divide Gaza from the West Bank," they said. "It's only meant to allow Palestinians to transact digitally."

Implementing any digital payment system in Gaza faces practical obstacles. The enclave suffers from frequent power cuts, and Israel has long limited Gazans to slow 2G network technology.

Tancman said last week that Gaza's 2G network "will be upgraded with free high-speed access to essential services" by July.

The proposal remains in early stages. Gulf Arab and Palestinian companies with digital currency expertise are expected to help spearhead the effort, but no partners have been named.