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Hilal Markets Methodology · v2026.10-hm.2

Our own screening standard, and everything it cannot do.

It reads what a project writes about itself and applies 69 conditions, each carrying the verse, hadith or standard behind it. A machine does the reading; for a coin no authority has ruled on, a Hilal Markets reviewer makes the decision. It is not a fatwa.

Important
Still under development. No Shariah advisor stands behind it.

It is not a fatwa and it is not the decision of a Shariah board. For a result a named authority decided, choose one of the reviewed standards inside the product.

Read every conditionOpen the product
81conditions written
69approved and livethe rest change nothing
57a website can settle12 cannot
150proofs citedQur'an, hadith, standards

What it is

A rule you can argue with, applied the same way every time.

Most screening you will meet is a label with nothing behind it. This one is the opposite: every condition is written down, every condition carries its proof, and the owner has to sign a separate file before any of them is allowed to refuse a single coin. Writing a rule and switching it on are two different acts, on purpose.

Written with its proof

Each of the 81 conditions names the verse, the hadith, the point of consensus or the published standard it rests on. 150 citations in total.

Switched on one by one

69 are approved and live. The other 12 are read on every coin so their effect can be seen — and they change nothing at all until they are signed.

Recorded, so it can be checked

Who decided, on what date, and against which version of the rules. A result you cannot re-open is an assertion, not evidence.

How it reads

Two ways a coin gets in, and they are never blurred.

A regulator already said yes

The Shariah Advisory Council of the Securities Commission of Malaysia publishes a list of digital assets it calls Shariah-compliant. Those coins come straight in, and this standard is not allowed to refuse them.

15 coins

Or our reviewer checked it

For a coin no authority has ruled on, the screen reads the project's own pages and applies every approved condition it can settle. A Hilal Markets reviewer reads that report and approves or rejects the coin. Nothing the machine decides alone is published.

One coin at a time

  1. Find where the project publishes

    Its website, its documentation, its whitepaper and its code, taken from a market data provider rather than from a search box.

  2. Read up to 80 of its own pages

    Only pages the project wrote about itself. A newsroom writing about the whole market is not the project describing its own business.

  3. Apply every approved condition

    A condition only counts when the project says it about itself, on enough of its own pages that it is a description rather than a passing mention.

  4. Answer, and show the sentence

    Every reason links to the page and the exact line it came from, so you can disagree with it.

The conditions

All 57 rules the reading applies, grouped by what they forbid.

These are the ones a website can settle. Open a chapter to read its rules, or pick one above to see it on its own. Each rule shows what it refuses and the proof it stands on.

Interestالربا

Money earned for lending money, rather than for doing work.

14
  • RB-01الإقراض بفائدة

    The project's own business is lending money and charging for it.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 278-279
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
  • RB-02عائد ثابت مضمون على مجرد الحفظ

    Holding the token pays a fixed, guaranteed rate that is promised rather than earned.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Legal maximقاعدة مقررة، نقل الإجماع عليها ابن قدامة في المغني
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • RB-03توكن يكبر رصيده تلقائياً من فائدة

    The token's balance grows on its own out of interest, not out of work.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
  • RB-04عائد من سندات وأذون خزانة

    The holder's return comes from treasury bills, which are interest-bearing loans.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • RB-05وحدة ادخار بفائدة

    The project runs a savings product that pays a set interest rate on deposits.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Legal maximقاعدة مقررة، نقل الإجماع عليها ابن قدامة في المغني
  • RB-06تمويل بالهامش

    The project lends traders money at interest so they can trade bigger.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
  • RB-07غرامة تأخير مالية

    A late payer is charged extra money purely for being late.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
  • RB-08قرض يجر نفعاً

    A loan that brings the lender a benefit beyond the money lent.

    • Legal maximقاعدة مقررة، نقل الإجماع عليها ابن قدامة في المغني
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
  • RB-09بطاقة ائتمان بفوائد

    The project issues a credit card that charges interest on unpaid balances.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
  • RB-10تأمين تجاري تقليدي

    The project sells conventional insurance policies.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • RB-11بنك ربوي تقليدي

    The project is a conventional bank or its arm.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1598
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • RB-12إصدار سندات بفائدة

    The project issues interest-bearing bonds or notes.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • RB-13مبادلة أسعار الفائدة

    The project sells interest-rate swaps.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • RB-15اشترِ الآن وادفع لاحقاً بزيادة

    The project finances purchases and charges for the delay itself.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Legal maximقاعدة مقررة، نقل الإجماع عليها ابن قدامة في المغني

Gamblingالميسر والقمار

A prize decided by chance, where one side loses what the other wins.

9
  • MY-01القمار والمراهنة

    The project's own business is betting or a casino.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 91
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 219
  • MY-02أسواق التنبؤ

    The project runs a market for betting on future events.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • MY-03صناديق عشوائية مدفوعة

    The project sells paid boxes whose contents are decided by chance.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • MY-04عجلة الحظ والدوران بمقابل

    The project charges for a random spin that may or may not pay out.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
  • MY-05بطولة برسم دخول وجائزتها من الرسوم

    Entrants pay a fee and the winner takes the pooled fees.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188
  • MY-06ألعاب النرد والروليت

    The project runs dice or roulette games for money.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithمسلم: 2260
  • MY-07اللعب مقابل الربح إذا كان الدخول بمقابلScholars differ

    Players must pay to enter and what they earn is decided by chance.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • MY-08بيع تغطية المخاطر بمقابل

    The project sells cover against a risk in exchange for a premium.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • MY-09المراهنة على فشل مشروع أو انهيار سعر

    The project runs markets for betting that something will fail.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Legal maximابن ماجه: 2341، ومالك في الموطأ

Deep uncertaintyالغرر والجهالة

Selling something nobody can describe, or does not yet own.

10
  • GH-01المشتقات والرافعة المالية

    The project's own business is leverage, perpetuals or other derivatives.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3503، والترمذي: 1232
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
  • GH-02البيع على المكشوف

    The project lets people sell what they do not own.

    • Hadithأبو داود: 3503، والترمذي: 1232
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • GH-03البيع قبل القبض

    Things are resold before the seller has actually taken possession.

    • Hadithالبخاري: 2136، ومسلم: 1525
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3503، من حديث حكيم بن حزام
  • GH-04بيع الدين بالدين

    The project exchanges one deferred debt for another.

    • Consensusنقل الإجماع ابن المنذر والإمام أحمد
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • GH-05بيع الدين بأقل منه

    The project buys debts at a discount and sells them on.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Consensusجمهور الفقهاء
  • GH-07ذهب أو فضة رقمية بلا تغطية محددة

    A gold or silver token with no specific allocated metal behind it.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1587
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • GH-08أصول اصطناعية تحاكي أصولاً محرمة

    The project mints synthetic copies of assets nobody actually holds.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3503، والترمذي: 1232
  • GH-09ترميز أوراق مالية

    The token stands for a share or a bond, which this product does not screen.

    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513
  • GH-11إقراض أصول العملاء لمن يبيع على المكشوف

    The project lends out holdings so others can short-sell them, for a fee.

    • Hadithأبو داود: 3503، والترمذي: 1232
    • Legal maximقاعدة مقررة، نقل الإجماع عليها ابن قدامة في المغني
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
  • GH-13تزويد السيولة مع الخسارة غير الدائمةScholars differ

    Liquidity providers can be returned a different mix than they put in.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1513

Forbidden tradesالأنشطة المحرمة لذاتها

Businesses built on things Islam forbids outright.

12
  • PR-01الخمر وصناعتها وبيعها

    The project's business is alcohol.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3674، وابن ماجه: 3380
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3488
  • PR-02لحم الخنزير والميتة

    The project's business is pork or carrion.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 3
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3488
  • PR-03المخدرات

    The project's business is narcotics.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithمسلم: 2003
    • Legal maximابن ماجه: 2341، ومالك في الموطأ
  • PR-04التبغScholars differ

    The project's business is tobacco.

    • Legal maximابن ماجه: 2341، ومالك في الموطأ
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • PR-05المحتوى الإباحي

    The project's business is adult content.

    • Qur'anالنور: 30
    • Qur'anالإسراء: 32
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 2
  • PR-06الدعارة والاتجار بالبشر

    The project facilitates prostitution or trafficking.

    • Qur'anالنور: 33
    • Hadithالبخاري: 2227
  • PR-07السحر والتنجيم والكهانة

    The project sells fortune telling, astrology or sorcery.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3904
  • PR-08الأصنام وشعائر الشرك

    The project's business is idols or the rites of other-than-God worship.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 90
    • Qur'anالحج: 30
  • PR-09سلاح للعدوان

    The project's business is arming unlawful aggression.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 2
    • Hadithمسلم: 2564
  • PR-10صناعة الترفيه المحرمScholars differ

    The project's core business is music, film or nightlife.

    • Qur'anلقمان: 6
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)
  • PR-11أصول رقمية تحمل صوراً أو رموزاً محرمة

    What the project actually sells is obscene or idolatrous imagery.

    • Qur'anالإسراء: 32
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3488
  • PR-12الفنادق والمنتجعات القائمة على المحرمScholars differ

    The project's core income is hotel services built on alcohol and gambling.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 2
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)

Deceptionالغش والتدليس

Making a market look like something it is not.

1
  • DC-04النجش ورفع السعر بلا نية شراء

    Prices are pushed up by people with no intention of buying.

    • Hadithالبخاري: 2142، ومسلم: 1516
    • Hadithمسلم: 102

Taking without rightأكل المال بالباطل

Profit that comes out of somebody else's pocket for nothing.

4
  • WG-03الاحتكار

    The project withholds supply to push the price up.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1605
    • Legal maximابن ماجه: 2341، ومالك في الموطأ
  • WG-05خدمة لغسل الأموال أو التهرب

    The project sells itself as a way to hide money or escape lawful duty.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188
    • Qur'anالمائدة: 2
  • WG-06شراء الأصوات في الحوكمة

    Votes in the project's governance are openly bought and sold.

    • Hadithأبو داود: 3580، والترمذي: 1337
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188
  • WG-07المشروع يصف عملته بأنها عملة ميمScholars differ

    The project calls its own token a meme coin, and the Hilal Markets Methodology does not cover meme coins.

    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188
    • Qur'anالنساء: 29

The shape of the dealصيغة العقد

Agreements Islam refuses because of how they are put together.

1
  • CF-03ضمان رأس المال في المشاركة

    A partnership guarantees the capital or a set profit, which turns it into a loan.

    • Hadithأبو داود: 3508، والترمذي: 1285
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Standardالمعيار الشرعي رقم 21 — الأوراق المالية، هيئة المحاسبة والمراجعة للمؤسسات المالية الإسلامية (أيوفي)

Money for moneyالصرف والتقابض

Swapping one currency for another without both sides handing over at once.

2
  • EX-01صرف عملة بعملة بغير تقابض

    Currency is exchanged for currency without both sides changing hands at once.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1587
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
  • EX-02عقد صرف آجل

    The project sells forward foreign-exchange contracts.

    • Hadithمسلم: 1587
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 275
    • Hadithمسلم: 1513

Harmالضرر والظلم

Businesses that work by hurting their own users.

4
  • HM-01الإعانة على محرم

    The project openly markets itself to serve a forbidden business.

    • Qur'anالمائدة: 2
    • Hadithأبو داود: 3488
  • HM-02الاستفادة من ترتيب المعاملات على حساب المستخدم

    The project profits by jumping ahead of users' own orders and selling back to them at a worse price.

    • Hadithالبخاري: 2165، ومسلم: 1517
    • Hadithمسلم: 102
    • Legal maximابن ماجه: 2341، ومالك في الموطأ
  • HM-03التصرف في أصول العملاء بغير إذنهم

    The project uses customers' deposited assets without their consent.

    • Hadithأحمد: 23605، من حديث أبي حميد الساعدي، وصححه الألباني
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188
  • HM-04بيع بيانات المستخدمين بغير إذن

    The project sells users' private data without their consent.

    • Qur'anالحجرات: 12
    • Qur'anالبقرة: 188

What it skips

Skipping is not passing. It means we did not look.

57run

Some questions cannot be answered by reading a website. How much interest-bearing debt a company carries. Whether a swap is unequal in the way Islam forbids. Those need a person, or figures nobody publishes.

This standard skips them rather than guessing, and skipping is recorded rather than hidden. A skipped rule contributes nothing in either direction: it cannot refuse a coin, and it never counts as a coin having passed.

  • RB-14ربا الفضل في مبادلة الجنس الواحدneeds a person
  • WG-01لا منفعة ولا منتج خلف العملةneeds a person, except for meme coins, which are always refused
  • CF-01بيعتان في بيعةneeds a person
  • CF-02بيع وسلفneeds a person
  • CF-04ربح ما لم يضمنneeds a person
  • RT-01الدخل المحرم يتجاوز 5% من الإيرادneeds figures nobody publishes
  • RT-02الديون الربوية تتجاوز 30% من القيمة السوقيةneeds figures nobody publishes
  • RT-03الاستثمارات الربوية تتجاوز 30% من القيمة السوقيةneeds figures nobody publishes
  • GH-10بيع المعدومneeds a person
  • CF-05شرطان في بيعneeds a person
  • EX-03التفاضل في صرف الجنس الواحدneeds a person
  • RT-04وجوب تطهير الدخل المحرم اليسيرneeds figures nobody publishes

The three answers

Three words, and none of them is "halal".

Admitted

A regulator publishes it as Shariah-compliant.

Not suitable

Refused under one of this standard's own rules.

Not judged

Too little of what the project writes about itself could be read.

"Not judged" is a request for more research — never a quiet no. A coin nobody could read has not been refused, and the product never shows it as though it had been.

Coins judged

Every coin this standard has an answer for — including the ones it refused.

A list of only the coins that passed cannot be checked: you would have no way to tell a coin that was refused from a coin nobody looked at. Both are here.

Coins the Hilal Markets Methodology has judged, with how it decided
CoinAnswerHowPages readDecided
BTCBitcoinAdmittedA regulator published it—2020-07-20
ETHEthereumAdmittedA regulator published it—2020-07-20
XRPXRPAdmittedA regulator published it—2020-07-20
LTCLitecoinAdmittedA regulator published it—2020-07-20
BCHBitcoin CashAdmittedA regulator published it—2021-08-23
SOLSolanaAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-01-12
ADACardanoAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-01-12
LINKChainlinkAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-02-09
UNIUniswapAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-02-09
MATICPolygonAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-08-10
AVAXAvalancheAdmittedA regulator published it—2023-08-10
DOTPolkadotAdmittedA regulator published it—2024-05-16
ATOMCosmosAdmittedA regulator published it—2024-05-16
WLDWorldcoinAdmittedA regulator published it—2024-06-11
XLMStellarAdmittedA regulator published it—2024-12-10
PEPEPepeNot suitableThe meme-coin rule12026-10-01

Other standards

Whose answers we take, and whose we do not.

Only one outside list is admitted automatically, and the reason is that it is the only financial regulator among them. The other two are used differently, and neither of them puts a coin into this standard.

SC Malaysia SAC Digital Assets Reference

Shariah Advisory Council, Securities Commission Malaysia

Admitted · 15 coins

A financial regulator, and the only one in the set. Its published approvals are a floor this standard may not fall below, so every coin on its list is admitted without being re-read.

Open the source

Fasset Shariah Reports

Fasset

Not admitted

Publishes both the assets it accepts and the assets it refuses, which is what the rules here were measured against. It is a measuring stick, not a source of admissions: nothing is admitted because Fasset accepted it.

Open the source

Shariah Review Bureau

Shariyah Review Bureau W.L.L.

Not admitted

A commercial research house, not a regulator, and its reports are not ours to republish. Its results stay under its own name.

Open the source

What it never does

The boundaries, stated plainly.

  • It never calls a coin halal or haram. It says what it read and what refused it.
  • It is never mixed with an authority’s decision into one score. It publishes under its own name or not at all.
  • It is never chosen for you. You have to pick it deliberately, and every result carries this warning.
  • It never guesses at a question it cannot answer. It records the question as skipped.
  • It never gives buy or sell advice, and Hilal Markets never places a trade.
  • The Hilal Markets Methodology does not cover meme coins, so every meme coin is marked not suitable under it. A coin is a meme coin here when Hilal Markets lists it as one, when CoinMarketCap files it under a meme tag, or when the project calls itself a meme coin on its own pages.

Want a decision a named authority made?

The product carries reviewed standards alongside this one. Choose one of those and you get an authority's own published result, with its citation.

Open the product

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