PAX Gold
PAXG#49PAXG is a gold token from Paxos: each token stands for one troy ounce of vaulted gold.
- Market cap
- $1.81B
- Volume 24h
- $215.69M
- All-time high
- —
- Circulating supply
- 435.07K
Passes our 8 Shariah criteria. Needs caution: business model and permissible ownership.
- 6 pass
- 2 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- HalalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold PAX Gold?8 Shariah criteria
6 pass · 2 caution · 0 failHolding PAXG pays no interest: the token is a share of allocated gold, and Paxos earns fees, not interest, on it.
Riba means interest, or any fixed increase in a loan or in an exchange of money-like goods. Paxos's terms describe PAXG as a warehouse receipt for a share of specific gold bars: the holder carries all the gain and loss of that gold and receives no interest, yield or profit share. Paxos keeps the bars separate for holders and charges creation, redemption and conversion fees. Gold, however, is a ribawi item, so how PAXG is exchanged matters.
AAOIFI's gold standard (SS 57) says that when gold is sold for money both sides must be settled in the same session, and Malaysia's SC Shariah Advisory Council treats a gold-backed token as currency traded under the rules of currency exchange (sarf). Liberandum reads both as applying to PAXG. A buyer should therefore pay in full and receive the tokens at once; deferred or leveraged trades and third-party 'earn' programs that lend PAXG out raise riba and are assessed under trading mechanisms. The score is lowered a little for this concrete point, which is the likely basis of Sharlife's grey (doubtful) rating: it publishes no reasons, but gold-for-money exchange is where a gold token most easily meets riba.
- Paxos: PAX Gold Terms and Conditions (last modified 12 December 2025)
- Paxos Knowledge Base: PAX Gold Fees
- Shari'ah Standard No. (57): Gold and Its Trading Parameters (English translation, AAOIFI and World Gold Council)
- Resolutions of the Shariah Advisory Council of the SC: Digital Assets from Shariah Perspective (233rd and 234th meetings)
PAXG is a claim on real, allocated gold bars held for holders, which both tier-1 rulings on gold-backed tokens treat as a valid asset.
Each PAXG equals one fine troy ounce of London Good Delivery gold. Paxos's terms say the tokens represent fractional ownership of specific bars, identified by serial number, weight and purity, held on a segregated basis for holders in LBMA-approved London vaults, and that all tokens are allocated to specific bars at all times. The 2019 white paper adds that the bars do not become part of Paxos's estate if it fails.
AAOIFI's gold standard accepts constructive possession of gold through allocation of an identifiable bar or a certificate representing a specified bar that allows physical delivery on request. Malaysia's SC Shariah Advisory Council classes gold-backed digital tokens as currency. Neither ruling names PAXG, and treating the token as such a certificate is an application by analogy. The score is lowered a little for one concrete limit: physical delivery needs at least 430 PAXG per bar, so small holders can only redeem for dollars or through Paxos's other conversion routes.
- Paxos: PAX Gold Terms and Conditions (last modified 12 December 2025)
- PAX Gold White Paper v1.0 (Paxos, 5 September 2019)
- Shari'ah Standard No. (57): Gold and Its Trading Parameters (English translation, AAOIFI and World Gold Council)
- Resolutions of the Shariah Advisory Council of the SC: Digital Assets from Shariah Perspective (233rd and 234th meetings)
PAXG is mainly used to own and move gold; its price follows gold, not a game of chance.
Maysir means gambling or gain by pure chance. PAXG has no lottery, betting or reward mechanics: its value follows the London gold price, and Paxos prices creations and redemptions from StoneX streaming London gold prices. Gold is a classic store of value in Islamic law, and the average PAXG holding rose to about US$26,000 by June 2026, which points to saving rather than rapid trading. PAXG is also traded on exchanges and used in leveraged products, which is speculative, but that is how some people trade it, not what the token is.
Gold's price does move, and PAXG reached an all-time high of about US$5,619 in January 2026 before trading near US$4,275 in September 2026; ordinary volatility is not maysir. With no gambling feature in the token, the criterion gets the maximum score.
PAXG itself earns Paxos fees, but Paxos does not publish its revenue mix, and it also issues interest-reserve dollar tokens.
The economics behind PAXG are service fees. Paxos charges creation fees (waived until 1 January 2027), redemption fees of 0.125% to 0.5% on net redemptions since 1 September 2026, a 0.05% in-kind conversion fee and a US$2 monthly fee on long-inactive accounts. It charges no storage fee today and advertises zero on-chain transfer fees. None of this is interest. The issuer, Paxos Trust Company, is also a stablecoin issuer: its site lists US dollar tokens such as PayPal USD and Global Dollar among Paxos-issued assets.
Paxos does not publish revenue by source, so the share of its total income from interest on reserves cannot be checked against the 5% threshold. An unknown revenue mix keeps this criterion at caution. Paxos also agreed a US$48.5M NYDFS settlement in 2025 (a US$26.5M penalty plus US$22M of compliance improvements) over compliance failures in its Binance stablecoin partnership.
Supply, backing and bar allocation are disclosed and attested monthly, though Paxos keeps strong freeze, upgrade and fee powers.
Gharar means excessive uncertainty in a contract. PAXG's supply is public on-chain, each token is tied to identified bars that holders can look up by wallet address, and Paxos publishes monthly attestation reports, prepared by KPMG since February 2025, that tokens match the gold held. The issuer is a regulated trust bank supervised by the OCC. Some uncertainty remains. The token sits behind an upgradeable contract, and Paxos can freeze and upgrade all tokens, freeze or wipe individual addresses on legal grounds and refuse redemption.
Its terms also let it introduce a storage fee later by minting new PAXG to itself, diluting holders, with 30 days' notice. The bar lookup does not cover tokens held on custodial exchanges. These are disclosed powers under supervision, not hidden ones, so this is a pass, lowered a little for the freeze, upgrade and fee-minting powers.
PAXG tokenises a permissible asset, physical gold, and is used mainly to hold and move gold value.
Tokenisation of permissible assets is a permissible use. PAXG gives fractional access to investment-grade gold with a minimum purchase of 0.03 PAXG on Paxos.com, and lets holders move gold value between wallets and exchanges at any time. Some use is disputed: the 2019 white paper expected crypto lending platforms to pay interest on PAXG, and the Solana launch in June 2026 brought PAXG into DeFi pools. Such lending and leveraged uses are third-party arrangements, and no source measures their share of PAXG activity.
The score is lowered a little for these disputed uses; their share is recorded as a data gap rather than counted against the token.
Spot ownership with full payment is available, but meeting the gold exchange conditions fully depends on how and where PAXG is bought and held.
PAXG can be bought on the spot with full payment, on exchanges or from Paxos. For gold, AAOIFI's standard adds conditions: both sides of a gold-for-money exchange settled in the same session, and possession through an identified bar or a certificate issued on trade date that allows physical delivery on request. PAXG meets these only in part. Paxos's terms say tokens bought on its platform are delivered the next business day, although its page says they are typically minted the same day. The bar lookup works only for self-custodied wallets, not for tokens left on exchanges.
Physical delivery needs at least 430 PAXG, and only verified Paxos customers can redeem at all. A buyer who pays in full, receives the tokens at once and holds them in their own wallet comes closest to the standard. Treating PAXG as a gold certificate under SS 57 is Liberandum's reading. Sharlife rates PAXG grey (doubtful) without published reasons; these gold-exchange conditions are the most likely basis, and they keep this criterion at caution.
PAXG makes gold ownership cheaper and more accessible, with limited harm beyond issuer and compliance risks.
Maslahah means public benefit weighed against harm. PAXG lets people own small shares of investment-grade gold without storage costs, which was hard for most savers before, and lets them move it across borders quickly. The issuer is supervised and screens users for money laundering. The harms are modest. Paxos paid a US$48.5M NYDFS settlement in 2025 over anti-money-laundering failures in its Binance partnership, the token depends on a single company for custody and redemption, and PAXG is not available in the EU.
These concrete issues lower the score a little, but benefit clearly outweighs harm.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesPAXG can be bought on the spot with full payment on exchanges and from Paxos, and spot purchase is acceptable for a HALAL or DOUBTFUL asset. Because PAXG stands for gold, pay in full and take delivery at once: under AAOIFI's gold standard and, on Liberandum's reading, the SC Malaysia ruling, gold for money must be exchanged hand to hand. Holding the tokens in your own wallet lets you see the bars you own.
There is no exchange-traded fund that holds PAXG. A fund holding PAXG would be judged like spot, and AAOIFI applies its gold rulings to funds whose assets are all gold, but the fund's structure (no interest income, no lending of the gold) would need a separate check.
PAXG can be sent as payment and Paxos's terms allow it, but tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI prohibit cryptocurrency as a means of payment, and paying with a gold-backed token is itself an exchange of gold that should be settled on the spot. Check local rules before paying with PAXG.
Not available natively: PAXG is not a proof-of-stake coin, so there is no validation work to be paid for. Products marketed as PAXG staking pay returns from lending the tokens out, which is interest (riba).
Always fail: borrowing to trade with leverage, without full delivery. On gold this also breaks the rule that gold for money must be exchanged on the spot.
Always fail: futures, perpetuals and options on PAXG or gold are deferred exchanges without delivery, with leverage.
Lending PAXG for a fixed or guaranteed return is interest on a loan. The 2019 white paper expected crypto lending platforms to pay interest on PAXG; Paxos itself pays holders nothing.
Gold earns no yield on its own, and Paxos pays none. 'Earn' products on PAXG get their return from lending it out, which is interest.
Scholars quotes
Because the token is fully backed by a tangible, permissible asset and involves no impure revenue streams, simply buying and holding PAXG is deemed 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.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.If a digital currency is backed by ribawi items comprising gold, silver and currency, it is categorised as a currency from Shariah perspective.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.Sale of gold for silver is permissible regardless of disparity in the weight of the counter-values; and sale of gold for currencies is permissible at any mutually agreed price.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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