Chainlink
LINK#12LINK pays for Chainlink, a network that brings outside data to blockchains.
- Market cap
- $10.42B
- Volume 24h
- $631.61M
- All-time high
- —
- Circulating supply
- 748.1M of 1B
Passes our 8 Shariah criteria. Needs caution: business model.
- 7 pass
- 1 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- HalalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Chainlink?8 Shariah criteria
7 pass · 1 caution · 0 failHolding LINK pays nothing; optional community staking pays a stated floor rate on unslashable principal, which resembles a fixed return.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Simply holding LINK earns nothing, and the token gives no claim on anyone's income; Islamic Finance Guru (IFG) rates LINK permissible. The score is lowered for one concrete feature of optional staking: in Chainlink Staking v0.2, community stakers lock LINK that backs the ETH/USD price feed and earn newly released LINK, advertised at launch as a base floor rate of 4.5% a year, while only node operators can be slashed.
The service element (backing and alerting) is real, which is why CryptoUmmah compares it to ju'alah or wakalah, but a stated floor rate on principal that cannot be lost resembles a return on capital; this is assessed under staking below.
LINK pays node operators for oracle data and secures service quality through staking.
Chainlink's function is real: the 2017 whitepaper describes LINK as the token that pays node operators for fetching and delivering off-chain data, staked LINK backs service quality, and Chainlink reported $110 billion of value secured by its services in Q2 2026. IFG, Sharlife and CryptoUmmah all rate LINK permissible. Some state bodies (Egypt, Turkey, the UAE, Indonesia's MUI) doubt cryptocurrency in general, but none names Chainlink or gives a concrete reason against it, so the criterion gets the maximum score.
LINK has no chance-based features, but most of its exchange trading is in perpetual futures.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, LINK has no chance-based payout, and it pays for and secures oracle services that other applications depend on, so it is not built for gambling. The score is lowered within the pass band because trading around it is dominated by derivatives: on Binance on 27 September 2026, perpetual futures were about 84% of LINK/USDT volume (a single-day snapshot), and LINK futures also trade on CME.
Chainlink earns service fees for data and cross-chain services, but part of its revenue comes from liquidations on interest-based lending protocols and the overall revenue mix is not disclosed.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. Most network income is fees for services (data feeds, CCIP cross-chain transfers and enterprise integrations), paid to node operators and the Chainlink Reserve, and Chainlink Labs funds itself by selling part of its 30% allocation.
IFG rates LINK permissible, but there is one concrete, sourced stream of disputed income: Smart Value Recapture (SVR) auctions the right to carry out liquidations on interest-based lending protocols such as Aave; by mid-2026 it had recaptured over $23 million, of which $8 million went to the network. Chainlink does not publish its total revenue or SVR's share, so under the threshold rule (disputed revenue shown to exist, share unknown) the criterion is caution.
Supply is fixed and wallets are public, but releases from about 252 million non-circulating LINK are not itemised.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Much is transparent: the supply is fixed at 1 billion LINK, all minted in 2017, so no one can create new tokens; Chainlink publishes its non-circulating wallet addresses and a release pace of about 7% of supply a year, and staking rules and the Reserve's timelock are documented.
The score is lowered for one concrete gap in disclosure: the roughly 252 million non-circulating LINK are released in quarterly batches (in April 2026 about 14.4 million went to Binance) without a published breakdown of what is sold, paid to node operators or kept.
LINK is used for general-purpose data and cross-chain infrastructure, though interest-based lending protocols and prediction markets are among its clients.
This criterion looks at what the asset is actually used for. LINK pays for and secures oracle and cross-chain services, which counts as infrastructure, used by banks and asset managers for tokenised funds and settlement (DTCC, Project Pangea, Fidelity International, State Street, Amundi). The score is lowered because some major clients are impermissible or disputed: DeFi lending protocols such as Aave depend on Chainlink price feeds, and prediction markets including Polymarket use Chainlink to settle bets.
IFG, Sharlife and ShariaQuant treat the oracle as neutral infrastructure whose uses are judged separately, and those uses are not shown to be the main purpose.
Fully paid spot LINK 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. LINK trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on major exchanges such as Binance, and as an ERC-20 token it can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet. It is also held by the Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK), whose April 2026 prospectus says it does not stake, lend, pledge or use leverage. Ownership does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers, so the criterion gets the maximum score.
Reliable data and cross-chain infrastructure is a clear benefit; the harm is indirect, through lending and betting applications that also use it.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is clear: tamper-resistant price data and cross-chain messaging reduce manipulation and failures in on-chain finance, and regulated institutions use Chainlink for tokenised funds, collateral and foreign-exchange settlement. No specific harm tied to Chainlink itself, such as fraud or sanctions evasion, was found. Its indirect role in interest-based lending and prediction markets is weighed under business model and usage, so the criterion gets the maximum score.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying LINK with full payment and immediate delivery is widely available on major exchanges, and tokens can be moved to a self-custody Ethereum wallet. Spot is acceptable for a HALAL-rated asset.
The Grayscale Chainlink Trust ETF (GLNK) holds LINK itself. Its April 2026 prospectus says it does not stake, will not use leverage or derivatives, and will not lend or pledge its assets, so its structure raises none of the issues Shariah screening checks for; it is assessed like spot. Other issuers' products were not reviewed.
LINK is not used as a payment currency for goods; it pays for oracle services. Tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI rule that using cryptocurrency as currency is not permissible, so paying with LINK is caution.
Chainlink Staking v0.2 pays community stakers a stated floor rate from token emissions while their principal cannot be slashed; only node operators bear slashing. The service element (backing a price feed and raising alerts) is real, but the structure resembles a fixed return on locked capital, so it is caution. Exchange staking of LINK adds an intermediary and should be checked product by product.
Margin trading in LINK is widely offered but is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
LINK perpetual futures dominate its exchange volume, and futures also trade on CME. Futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage.
Lending LINK on DeFi lending protocols or through exchange lending programmes pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba.
LINK yield products built on lending or leveraged strategies pay interest or interest-like returns and fail. Native staking is assessed separately above.
Scholars quotes
Holding (Halal): Simply buying and holding LINK is permissible because the token provides neutral oracle infrastructure with clean revenue streams and no direct exposure to prohibited activities.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.As of now, the projects run by Chainlink (LINK) appear to be in accordance with Shariah principles.As a decentralised oracle network with the primary aim of connecting data providers to blockchain projects, we believe Chainlink is halal.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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