Guide to Halal and Haram Cryptocurrencies

One of the most controversial inventions to date is cryptocurrencies.

Some people think that they are the future of finance.

They offer many great opportunities such as convenient worldwide transactions and independency from banks.

Others argue though that there are many risks connected to them.

High volatility, fraudulent activity, and money laundering are part of the crypto daily routine.

That is the reason why many Islamic scholars think cryptocurrencies do not follow the Sharia.

This guide will clarify how a cryptocurrency can be Halal, and another one Haram.

Below, we will list all the cryptocurrencies that are Sharia Compliant.

According to the sacred law, everything connected to gambling or riba (lending money at or paying high-interest rates) is taboo.

You are probably thinking now:

“Isn’t that in the nature of crypto itself?”

Well, not necessarily.

Islamic investors have arguments supporting these digital assets.

They have found a clever way to separate them into 2 categories – Halal (permissible/Sharia Compliant) and Haram (forbidden).

With Muslims contributing to more than 23% of the total world population – around 1.6 Billion people, we have to come down to the bottom of this topic.

In the end, you will get a clear picture of the following aspects:

• How to divide coins into permissible and forbidden?
• Which coins are Haram?
• Which coins are Halal?
• How to find worthy projects to invest in?

Why cryptocurrency is haram

For us to understand better why many people consider crypto not to be Sharia-compliant, we have to go back to the roots of Islam religion.

Cryptocurrencies are digital.

That means that they lack physical form or any kind of material backing.

So, we can say that most cryptocurrencies are not real money.

People use them more often as an investment rather than to exchange them for goods and services.

That goes, of course, against the principle of Islam finance. We could then say that cryptocurrencies are Haram.

Money should be used for the things you need like food, water, clothes, etc.

But…

With the latest Bitcoin (BTC) adoptions though things get tricky, as there are already thousands of BTC ATMs worldwide.

They allow users to convert their tokens into fiat money and use them for their basic needs.

The sacred law prohibits betting and charging or paying interest

The high volatility of crypto assets means that there is a speculative element involved.

Let’s take a look at ETH (Ethereum) for example, as it is one of the biggest and “safest” coins out there.

In a year, the price went from $3,500 in July 2021 to nearly $8,000 later in November 2021.

Then we saw a big crash and prices dipped to $2,000 in early July 2022.

Now imagine how much money was made during that time.

Not quite religious, right?

Lack of regulations

Many people are concerned that major authorities can’t keep track of cryptocurrencies and interfere if needed.

That leaves a lot of space for criminal activity.

Lately, the US is considering introducing some sort of regulations around crypto.

The Islamic world though is still silent about that and governments aren’t taking action in that direction yet.

Why is crypto Halal?

Some Islamic scholars argue that crypto can be Halal.

That is the case if it is only used for the right reasons and doesn’t involve riba (charging or paying interest), gharar (risk), and maysir (speculation/gambling).

To determine whether a cryptocurrency is Halal or Haram we have to consider a few key factors:

The nature of the project

If it provides enough transparency and has a promising long-term plan, it can be viewed as rather permissible.

Certain features can determine if a project is worthy enough or not.

We refer to the staking and the involvement of the investors in the development of the project.

The usage reasons

This aspect is very self-dependent.

What you should ask yourself is:

“Why am I buying this cryptocurrency?”

If the answer is to wait so the prices go up and reap the reward, you are in the wrong direction.

If you are viewing crypto as a true currency or a digital asset and only use it for its primal purpose, you will be fine.

In that matter, you can compare it to investing in stocks but with much higher risks.

That brings us to our last point.

Risk management

Like with everything else in this world, if there is an investigation by a few authorities, it is a red flag.

As participating in a project with a criminal record is probably not that Sharia-compliant.

So, we encourage you to do your homework carefully.

Rise of the Machines – Ai to determine if a Coin is Halal

No, we are not talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator.

We are referring to a machine-learning model that helps people determine whether a coin is Halal or Haram.

Without a detailed explanation, we will introduce you to it.

A Computer and Information Science student Shahad Z. Al-Khalifa came up with the idea of a tool named CryptoHalal.

As the name suggests it helps identify which currencies are Hallal and which Haram.

Based on 20 common features for most coins the program decides whether a project is “probably Haram” or “probably Halal”.

The only downside is that the reference information comes from a Telegram channel supervised by Islamic scholars.

That means that it can be rather subjective.

That is why there are no certain answers but rather suggestions.

With the development of deep learning though, we will see more accurate systems soon.

If you want to find out more about the model of Al-Khalifa, you can read his release paper.

Haram & Halal Coins List – A Quick Overview

To spare you some time, we have prepared for you a list of some of the best-known cryptocurrencies and their Halal/Haram status.

Halal Cryptocurrencies Quick List

1. Bitcoin [BTC]

2. Ethereum [ETH]

3. Dogecoin [DOGE]

4. Solana [SOL]

5. Binance Coin [BNB]

6. Flux [FLUX]

7. Litecoin [LTC]

8. Polkadot [DOT]

9. Polygon [MATIC]

10. Ripple [XRP]

Haram Cryptocurrencies Quick List

1. Celsius [CEL]

2. Frontier [FRONT ]

3. Shiba Inu [SHIB]

4. Venus [XVS]

5. Voyager [VGX]

6. Troy [TROY]

7. Terra [LUNA]

8. 1Inch [1INCH]

9. Bitcoin Gold [BTG]

10. Just [JST]

You can see above that projects with real-life integration and an optimistic future are permissible.

That includes Dogecoin [DOGE] which is widely associated with the current second richest man Elon Musk.

Another example is Solana [SOL].

This currency is famous for its efficiency – fast and cheap transactions.

Complete List of Halal and Haram Cryptocurrency

Now, I am guessing that you might be interested in having a complete list of Halal coin.

Sure this will be useful while researching which crypto currencies are sharia compliant.

If you know if any Halal coin that are not listed below, please make sure to comment it at the bottom of the page so we can add it.

Complete List of Halal Coin

Halal Cryptocurrency Name	Coin Ticker
0x	ZRX
Aelf	ELF
Aergo	AERGO
Agrello	DLT
Aion	AION
Alchemy Pay	ACH
Algorand	ALGO
AllianceBlock	ALBT
Amp	AMP
Aragon	ANT
Ariva	ARV
ARPA Chain	ARPA
Arweave	AR
Assemble Protocol	ASM
ASTA	ASTA
Atlant	ATL
Audius	AUDIO
Avalanche	AVAX
Axie Infinity	AXS
Balancer	BAL
Bancorp	BNT
Band Protocol	BAND
Bankera	BNK
Basic Attention Token	BAT
Beam	BEAM
Bifrost	BFC
Binance Coin	BNB
Binance USD	BUSD
Bitcoin	BTC
Bitcoin BEP2	BTCB
Bitcoin Cash	BCH
Bitcoin SV	BSV
Bluzelle	BLZ
Bytecoin	BCN
Cardano	ADA
Cartesi	CTSI
Casper	CSPR
Celer Network	CELR
Celo	CELO
CertiK	CTK
Chainlink	LINK
Chiliz	CHZ
Chromia	CHR
Chrono Tech	TIME
Civic	CVC
Conflux	CFX
Cortex	CTXC
Cosmos	ATOM
Covalent	CQT
Crypto.com	CRO
CyberMiles	CMT
Dai	DAI
Dash	DASH
DATA	DTA
Decentraland	MANA
Decred	DCR
Dent	DENT
Digibyte	DGB
DigitalBits	XDB
District X	DNT
DOCK	DOCK
Dogecoin	DOGE
Dusk Network	DUSK
eCash	XEC
ECOMI	OMI
Electroneum	ETN
Elrond	EGLD
Elysia	EL
Enjin Coin	ENJ
Eos	EOS
Epic Cash	EPIC
Espers	ESP
Ethereum	ETH
Ethereum Classic	ETC
Ethereum Name Service	ENS
Fantom	FTM
Fetch.Ai	FET
Filecoin	FIL
FIO Protocol	FIO
Firo	FIRO
Flux	FLUX
Ftx	FTT
Gala	GALA
Gifto	GTO
Gitcoin	GTC
Gnosis	GNO
GoChain	GO
Goldcoin	GLC
Golem	GLM
Groestlcoin	GRS
Hacken Token	HAI
HAPI	HAPI
Harmony	ONE
Hathor	HTR
Hedera Hashgraph	HBAR
Helium	HNT
Hive	HIVE
Holo	HOT
Horizen	ZEN
Huobi Token	HT
Hydra	HYDRA
HyperCash	HC
Icon	ICX
IEXEEC RLC	RLC
INT	INT
Internet Computer	ICP
IOST	IOST
Iota	IOTA
IOTA	MIOTA
Iotex	IOTX
IRISnet	IRIS
Kadena	KDA
Kalao	KLO
KardiaChain	KAI
Keep Network	KEEP
Klaytn	KLAY
KOK	KOK
Komodo	KMD
Kryll	KRL
Kucoin Token	KCS
Kusama	KSM
Lisk	LSK
Litecoin	LTC
Litentry	LIT
Litex	LXT
Livepeer	LPT
Loom Network	LOOM
Lossless	LSS
LTO Network	LTO
Marlin	POND
Mask Network	MASK
Mdex	MDX
Measurable Data Token	MDT
Medibloc	MED
Metahero	HERO
Metal	MTL
Metal	MTA
Mina Protocol	MINA
Monero	XMR
Monetha	MTH
Moonriver	MOVR
My Neighbour Alice	ALICE
Nano	NANO
Navcoin	NAV
Near	NEAR
Neblio	NEBL
Nebulas	NAS
Nem	XEM
Neo	NEO
Nervos Network	CKB
Nexus	NXS
NFTb	NFTB
NKN	NKN
NuCypher	NU
Nuls	NULS
Oasis Network	ROSE
Ocean Protocol	OCEAN
OMG Network	OMG
Ontology	ONT
Ontology Gas	ONG
Orachain	ORAI
Orbit Chain	ORC
Orchid	OXT
Origin Protocol	OGN
Orion Protocol	ORN
OST	OST
Pax Dollar	USDP
Paxos Standard	PAXG
PERL.eco	PERL
Persistence	XPRT
Phala Network	PHA
Pheonix Global	PHB
Pirate Chain	ARRR
Pivx	PIVX
POA Network	POA
Polkadot	DOT
Polygon	MATIC
Polymath	POLY
Powerledger	POWR
Prometeus	Prom
PundiX	PUNDIX
QLC Chain	QLC
Qtum	QTUM
Quant	QNT
Quantstamp	QSP
Radicle	RAD
Rally	RLY
Ravencoin	RVN
Razor Network	RAZOR
Render Token	RNDR
Request	REQ
Revain	REV
Ripple	XRP
RSK Infrastructure Framework	RIF
SafePal	SFP
Secret	SCRT
Selfkey	KEY
Sentivate	SNTVT
Serum	SRM
ShareToken	SHR
Siacoin	SC
Skale	SKL
Skrumble Network	SKM
Soda Coin	SOC
Solana	SOL
Solanium	SLIM
Stacks	STX
Status	SNT
Steamr	DATA
Steem Dollars	SBD
Stellar	XLM
STEPN	GMT
Storj	STORJ
StormX	STMX
Stratis	STRAX
Student Coin	STC
Suterusu	SUTER
Swash	SWASH
Swipe	SXP
Symbol	XYM
Syscoin	SYS
Telcoin	TEL
Tellor	TRB
Terra Virtua Kolect	TVK
Tether	USDT
Tether Gold	XAUT
Tezos	XTZ
The Graph	GRT
The Sandbox	SAND
Theta Fuel	TFUEL
Theta Network	THETA
Thorchain	RUNE
Titan Coin	TTN
TitanSwap	TITAN
TomoChain	TOMO
Travala	AVA
Trias Token	TRIAS
Tron	TRX
Trust Wallet	TWT
Ultra	UOS
Uniswap	UNI
Unus Sed Leo	LEO
USD Coin	USDC
Utrust	UTK
Validity	VAL
Vechain	VET
Velas	VLX
Verge	XVG
Veritaseum	VERI
Vethor	VTHO
Vidt Datalink	VIDT
Wabi	WABI
Waltonchain	WTC
Wanchain	WAN
Waves	WAVES
WAX	WAXP
WaykiChain	WICC
WINkLink	WIN
Wrapped Bitcoin	WBTC
Xdc Network	XDC
Xyo	XYO
Zcash	ZEC
Zigcoin	ZIG
Zilliqa	ZIL

Download our Halal Crypto List

Complete List of Haram Coin

Haram Cryptocurrency Name	Coin Ticker
1Inch	1INCH
Aave	AAVE
Akropolis	AKRO
Alpaca Finance	ALPACA
Alpha Finance Lab	ALPHA
Anchor Protocol	ANC
Ankr	ANKR
APY Finance	APY
Auger	REP
Badger DAO	BADGER
BakeryToken	BAKE
BarnBridge	BOND
Bella Protocol	BEL
Beta Finance	BETA
Bitcoin Gold	BTG
BitDAO	BIT
Bridge Mutual	BMI
bZx Protocol	BZRX
Celsius	CEL
Coin98	C98
Compound	COMP
Convex Finance	CVX
Cream Finance	CREAM
Curve Dao Token	CRV
DeFiChain	DFI
DeXe	DEXE
Dexlab	DXL
DFL Money	YFII
Dforce	DF
DuckDaoDime	DDIM
dYdX	DYDX
Enzyme	MLN
Frontier	FRONT
Genesis Vision	GVT
Harvest Finance	FARM
Hegic	HEGIC
HiFi Finance	MFT
IDEX	IDEX
Injective Protocol	INJ
Just	JST
Kava Lend	HARD
Kava Swap	SWP
Kava.io	KAVA
Kyber Network Crystal	KNC
Linear	LINA
Liquity	LQTY
Loopring	LRC
Maker	MKR
Mantra DOA	OM
Mirror Protocol	MIR
Mirrored Invesco QQQ Trust	mQQQ
Mirrored United States Oil Fund	mUSO
MMOCoin	MMO
Mobox	MBOX
Nexo	NEXO
Pancakeswap	CAKE
Perpetual Protocol	PERP
PicDAO DOUGH	DOUGH
Popuous	PPT
RAMP	RAMP
Raydium	RAY
Reef	REEF
Ren	REN
Ribbon Finance	RBN
SafeMoon	SAFEMOON
Sharpe Platform Token	SHP
Shiba Inu	SHIB
SpiritSwap	SPIRIT
Stafi	FIS
Sun	SUN
Sushi	SUSHI
Swerve	SWRV
Swissborg	CHSB
Synthetix	SNX
Terra	LUNA
TheForce Trade	FOC
TROY	TROY
TrueFi	TRU
Uma	UMA
UniLend	UFT
Venus	XVS
Viberate	VIB
Voyager	VGX
WEMIX	Wemix
Woo Network	WOO
Yearn.finance	YFI

Download our Haram Crypto List

More to know about the Halal & Haram sides of Crypto

There might be more questions you have in mind now that we covered the complete list of Halal and Haram crypto.

In the next few paragraphs, I will try to answer the most common ones. Let me know in the comments if anything is left unanswered.

Getting in contact with your religious scholars could also help you get answer and guide your decision.

Is Crypto Lending Halal?

Crypto lending can be Halal as long as it adheres to the principles of Sharia law, such as avoiding riba (interest) and gharar (uncertainty).

Sharia-compliant crypto lending platforms operate on a profit-sharing model or a fee-based system rather than charging interest.

In Islamic finance, profit and risk sharing are encouraged, making crypto lending permissible when it follows these principles.

It is important for Muslims to conduct due diligence and seek advice from religious scholars before engaging in any financial activity, including crypto lending.

Do You Have to Pay Zakat on Crypto?

Yes, you have to pay Zakat on Crypto if it meets the Nisab and Lunar Year requirements set by Sharia law.

Zakat is an obligatory charity in Islam, and it applies to all assets, including crypto.

The value of crypto fluctuates, so its Zakat calculation requires careful consideration of its current market value.

It’s important to note that not all scholars agree on the Zakat requirements for crypto.

Is crypto Staking Halal?

In Sharia-compliant crypto staking, an individual can earn rewards by locking their crypto assets in a network for a certain period of time.

The rewards earned are typically based on a profit-sharing model, where the individual receives a portion of the profits generated by the network. This method aligns with the principles of risk-sharing and entrepreneurship in Islamic finance.

In contrast, non-Sharia-compliant staking may involve earning a fixed interest rate, which is considered riba (usury) and is prohibited in Islam.

So, it’s important for Muslims to ensure that the staking method they choose is Sharia-compliant and aligned with the principles of Islamic finance.

Is mining crypto Halal?

Sharia-compliant mining involves earning rewards through a proof-of-work system, which is considered an acceptable method of earning money in Islam.

But, it’s important to note that mining can also involve significant environmental costs and may be seen as contributing to harm, which is against Islamic ethics.

Also, if the mining process involves unethical practices or contributes to illegal activities, it would not be considered Halal.

That’s all folks!

As Porky Pig would say at the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon, we are concluding.

To sum everything up, we can say that the debate around cryptocurrencies is still ongoing within the Muslim community.

It is hard to give a certain answer whether a coin is Halal (permissible) or Haram (forbidden).

Or should you take part in crypto as a Muslim at all?

Yet, by understanding the key factors around the topic, you can make an informed decision about yourself.

Please let me know what you think in the comment section as I think that this subject might bring a good debate. I am very curious to see what everyone thinks.

I hope that our complete list of Halal and Haram cryptocurrencies helped you!