Algorand
ALGO#60ALGO is the native coin of Algorand, a proof-of-stake blockchain for payments and tokenised assets.
- Market cap
- $1.16B
- Volume 24h
- $135.79M
- All-time high
- —
- Circulating supply
- 9.06B of 10B
Passes all 8 Shariah criteria.
- 8 pass
- 0 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- HalalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Algorand?8 Shariah criteria
8 pass · 0 caution · 0 failHolding ALGO pays nothing; staking rewards are paid for proposing blocks, and staked ALGO is not lent or locked.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Simply holding ALGO earns nothing. Since January 2025, an account that is online in consensus with at least 30,000 ALGO earns a reward when its proposed block is added to the chain: half of that block's transaction fees plus a bonus funded by the Algorand Foundation, which started at 10 ALGO per block and falls by 1% every millionth block. This is payment for validation work, not a return on a loan. The coins never leave the owner's wallet, there is no lock-up and no slashing, and a node that performs badly just earns nothing.
The Foundation-funded bonus is a subsidy from its treasury rather than new issuance, and the Foundation paid out 20 million ALGO of validator rewards in Q2 2026. Under the V1 staking test this is a variable reward for real network work, not a fixed or guaranteed return, and there is no lending or interest mechanism in the protocol, so the criterion gets the maximum score. Islamic Finance Guru, the first-priority authoritative source, rates Algorand permissible, and CryptoUmmah treats its staking as profit-sharing rather than interest. Liquid staking and lending apps are assessed under trading mechanisms.
Algorand is a working network and ALGO has clear uses in fees and consensus.
Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. Algorand clearly works: it had processed 3.64 billion transactions by 30 June 2026, and ALGO is needed to pay fees and to take part in consensus. The US SEC concluded in March 2026 that ALGO is a digital commodity that draws its value from the operation of a functional network. Islamic Finance Guru rates ALGO permissible, so with no concrete problem the criterion gets the maximum score.
The general disagreement among tier-1 bodies about cryptocurrency (Malaysia's SC permits it as tradable goods; Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, the UAE GAIAE, Turkey's Diyanet and Indonesia's MUI prohibit it; none names Algorand) is reflected in confidence, not in this score.
ALGO is not a gambling token and has a real function, though most of its exchange trading is in futures.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and ALGO has no chance-based payout of its own. The network is not dominated by memecoins or betting apps. Trading around the coin is heavily speculative, though: on 27 September 2026 Binance's ALGOUSDT perpetual futures traded about 16.6 million USDT in 24 hours against about 3.5 million USDT spot, so futures were about 83% of that pair's volume on Binance (a single-day snapshot on one exchange).
A real function exists alongside this, in fees, staking and payments, so the status is pass; the concrete futures dominance lowers the score within the band.
The protocol earns only transaction fees for a service; no impermissible income is shown, though the Foundation does not break down its income.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. The protocol itself only charges transaction fees, which are payment for a service: half of each block's fees goes to the proposer. No company collects revenue on behalf of ALGO holders. The Algorand Foundation plays a large role, though. It held about 1,036 million ALGO (about 11% of the 10 billion cap) and about $37.5 million at 30 June 2026.
It sold 10.6 million ALGO in Q2 2026 through a published, rules-based programme, funds part of the staking rewards, invests in ecosystem companies and third-party funds, and lends to its subsidiary Pera on undisclosed terms. Its unaudited report does not say whether its cash is held in interest-bearing instruments or what 'associated income' from investments consists of. No interest or other impermissible income is shown, so the criterion gets the maximum score; the missing breakdown of the Foundation's income is recorded as a data gap.
Supply is capped, the code is open and the Foundation reports quarterly, though its stake share and treasury remain large.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. ALGO's maximum supply is capped at 10 billion, all created at launch, and CoinGecko shows about 9.06 billion in circulation, so little supply remains to be released. The node software is open source, and the Foundation publishes quarterly transparency reports with its holdings, sales, spending and wallet addresses, and a published rule set for its structured selling.
Residual concerns are disclosed rather than hidden: the Foundation still held 19.43% of the stake taking part in consensus in Q2 2026, protocol development is now concentrated in the Foundation after it absorbed the Algorand Technologies team, and its reports are unaudited. Leadership also changed in 2026, with a move to the US in January and a new CEO from 31 August. These concrete concentration and governance points lower the score within the pass band.
Algorand is used mainly for payments, aid and tokenisation; interest-based lending is its largest DeFi application but not its main use.
This criterion looks at what the network is actually used for. Much of it is permissible: payments and stablecoins (about $43.6 million on the chain), tokenised assets, and humanitarian payments, such as UNHCR aid to more than 600,000 refugees in Afghanistan through HesabPay. The DeFi sector is small, about $36 million, but the largest application in it is Folks Finance, a lending and borrowing protocol that pays interest to depositors (about $59.7 million deposited on Algorand by DefiLlama's count, which includes its liquid staking).
Lending is therefore a notable share of on-chain financial use, though not the main purpose of the network, so the status is pass with the score lowered within the band.
Fully paid spot ALGO is widely available and can be held in one's own wallet.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. ALGO trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on major exchanges such as Binance, and it can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet such as Pera, where the owner controls it directly. Staking does not require giving the coins up. Ownership therefore does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers. How specific funds are structured is assessed separately under trading mechanisms. No concrete problem with permissible ownership is shown, so the criterion gets the maximum score.
Algorand brings real payment and aid benefits, with limited known harm beyond a 2023 third-party wallet hack.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is clear: Algorand carries low-cost payments, including humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and stablecoin flows in Syria reported by the Foundation, and it is investing in post-quantum security for users' accounts. Known harms are moderate. In February 2023 a hack of the third-party MyAlgo wallet cost users about $9.6 million, and the Foundation told users to move their funds. That third-party incident lowers the score slightly. No large-scale fraud or pump-and-dump problem specific to Algorand was found.
Speculative trading losses are counted under maysir, not again here.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying ALGO with full payment and immediate delivery is widely available, and coins can be moved to a self-custody wallet. Spot is acceptable for a HALAL-rated asset.
No US spot ALGO exchange-traded fund was found. Any exchange-traded product on ALGO elsewhere, such as in Europe, was not verified, so whether it holds ALGO fully, stakes it or lends it needs checking before use.
Tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI rule that using cryptocurrency as currency is not permissible, and paying with crypto is not allowed in Indonesia and is banned in Turkey. Most payments on Algorand are made in stablecoins rather than ALGO.
Consensus staking from your own wallet (at least 30,000 ALGO, running or using a node) pays rewards for proposing blocks, with no lock-up and no slashing, so it is rated pass. Staking pools, delegated staking and liquid staking tokens are caution: they pool stake through an intermediary, and liquid staking tokens can be deposited into interest-based lending markets.
Margin trading in ALGO is offered by exchanges but is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
ALGO perpetual futures are the larger part of its trading on Binance, but futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage.
Lending ALGO on platforms such as Folks Finance, or through exchange lending programmes, pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba.
ALGO yield products built on lending or leveraged strategies pay interest or interest-like returns and fail. Products that only pass on consensus staking rewards are closer to the staking assessment, but their source must be checked product by product.
Scholars quotes
Just like Ethereum, most scholars hold Algorand to be halal.The opinion on this is the same as doing the same with any halal assets such as shares – 1) is permissible, 2) is more debatable and there are differing opinions on short-term trading.Algorand has been certified as sharia-compliant, the company said Monday.As I mentioned at the beginning of this article it is not necessary to substantiate the permissibility of something as long as there are no prohibited factors involved in it or surrounding it.Penggunaan cryptocurrency sebagai mata uang hukumnya haram, karena mengandung gharar (ketidakjelasan), dharar (bahaya) dan bertentangan dengan Undang-Undang nomor 7 tahun 2011 tentang Mata Uang dan Peraturan Bank Indonesia nomor 17 tahun 2015 tentang Kewajiban Penggunaan Rupiah di Wilayah Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia.Sebagaimana mata wang yang lain, mata wang digital hendaklah tidak digunakan sebagai bayaran kepada barangan, perkhidmatan dan aktiviti tidak patuh Syariah seperti pembelian dadah, pelacuran, perjudian dan pendanaan aktiviti keganasan serta penggubahan wang haram.The SAC has also resolved that investment and trading of Digital Assets that fulfil the above requirements and which are traded on Digital Asset Exchange (DAX) registered with SC are permissible.Third: In light of the above and given the significant risks associated with this type of currencies and the instability of their transactions, the Council of the Academy recommends pursuing research and studies on issues affecting its ruling.Bitcoin is a digital currency that does not meet the legal and Sharia criteria that make it a currency subject to the rulings of dealing with official legal currencies recognized internationally.بناءً على ذلك: فلا يجوز شرعًا تداول عملة "البتكوين" والتعامل من خلالها بالبيعِ والشراءِ والإجارةِ وغيرها، بل يُمنع من الاشتراكِ فيها؛ لعدمِ اعتبارِها كوسيطٍ مقبولٍ للتبادلِ من الجهاتِ المخُتصَّةِ، ولِمَا تشتمل عليه من الضررِ الناشئ عن الغررِ والجهالةِ والغشِّ في مَصْرِفها ومِعْيارها وقِيمتها، فضلًا عما تؤدي إليه ممارستُها من مخاطرَ عاليةٍ على الأفراد والدول.According to research and opinion of experts so far, cryptocurrency is not considered ‘ maal ’ (wealth) in Sharia.Muhammadiyah memandang transaksi dan investasi kripto pada dasarnya mubah (boleh) tetapi dengan syarat tertentu.Our current position is 'tawaquf'; we can't say it is halal or haram, but we say it is better not to engage in itAI-assisted analysis checked against sources. Not a fatwa or investment advice.
Where it trades
Section in preparation
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