Avalanche
AVAX#21AVAX is the native coin of Avalanche, a smart-contract blockchain, used to pay fees and secure the network through staking.
- Market cap
- $5.02B
- Volume 24h
- $559.17M
- All-time high
- $144.96
- −92.18% from ATH
- Circulating supply
- 443.08M of 720M
Does not clear all 8 Shariah criteria. Needs caution: nature of the asset, gambling (maysir), and usage.
- 5 pass
- 3 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- DoubtfulCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Avalanche?8 Shariah criteria
5 pass · 3 caution · 0 failHolding AVAX pays nothing; staking rewards are newly created AVAX paid for validating the network, not interest on a loan.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Simply holding AVAX earns nothing. The only native return is staking: a validator locks at least 2,000 AVAX (a delegator at least 25 AVAX) for a fixed period and gets the same AVAX back at the end. Rewards are newly created AVAX, calculated from the stake, the staking period and the supply still left under the 720 million cap, and they are paid only if the validator was online and responsive for more than 90% of the period.
A delegator does not run a node but backs a working validator and pays it a fee of at least 2%; some scholars see delegation as borderline because the delegator does no work himself. Avalanche has no slashing (a penalty that destroys stake), so the staked principal is not at protocol risk, which some see as making the return closer to risk-free. It is still variable and tied to validation work, not a lending return.
Avalanche is a working network and AVAX has clear uses, but official religious bodies disagree on whether cryptocurrency is property (mal).
Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. Avalanche works: its main network runs three chains, about 204 million AVAX was staked on 27 September 2026, and governments use it, for example the UAE's UAEPASS document vault for about 12.5 million users. AVAX is needed to pay fees, to stake as a validator and as the unit that Avalanche L1 validators pay the main network in.
Malaysia's Securities Commission Shariah Advisory Council (2020), for assets under its supervision, treats digital currency without an underlying asset as goods ('urudh) that may be traded on registered exchanges. Other tier-1 bodies disagree: Egypt's Dar al-Ifta (2017), the UAE General Authority of Islamic Affairs (2018), Turkey's Diyanet (2017) and Indonesia's MUI (2021) prohibit dealing in cryptocurrencies, and the OIC Fiqh Academy (2019) deferred a ruling. None of them names Avalanche. Because authoritative bodies disagree, this criterion cannot be 'pass'.
- Resolutions of the Shariah Advisory Council of the SC - Securities Commission Malaysia
- Ruling on trading and dealing in Bitcoin - Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah
- Kripto paraların kullanımının dini hükmü nedir? - Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu (Diyanet)
- Keputusan Ijtima' Ulama Komisi Fatwa se-Indonesia VII tentang Hukum Cryptocurrency - Majelis Ulama Indonesia
AVAX is not a gambling token, but most of its trading on large exchanges is in futures.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and AVAX has no chance-based payout of its own. The market around it is heavily speculative, though. On 27 September 2026 perpetual futures on Binance and Bybit traded about $299 million of AVAX in 24 hours against about $69 million of spot trading on the same two exchanges, so futures were about 81% of that volume (a single-day snapshot).
A real function exists alongside this: AVAX pays fees and secures the network, and dedicated Avalanche networks are used by governments and companies, so the asset is not built for gambling.
There is no issuer earning for holders: transaction fees are burned, and staking rewards are new AVAX paid to validators.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. The Avalanche protocol does not collect revenue for a company or for AVAX holders. All transaction fees are burned, and validators of dedicated Avalanche L1 networks pay the main network a small continuous fee in AVAX for the service. Validators and delegators are paid in newly created AVAX for validation work.
Ava Labs, the company that develops the software, and the Avalanche Foundation are separate organisations that hold AVAX and build products; their own funding and treasury are not published in detail, which is recorded as a data gap rather than evidence of impermissible income.
The supply cap, reward formula and code are public and enforced by the network, though a recent upgrade changed reward rates.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Avalanche's supply rules are public: a hard cap of 720 million AVAX, 360 million created at genesis, the rest only as staking rewards under a published formula, and all fees burned. The network reported a supply of at most about 474.8 million AVAX on 27 September 2026. The node software is open source, and protocol changes go through public Avalanche Community Proposals before release.
Residual uncertainty is disclosed rather than hidden: the Helicon upgrade of 22 September 2026 changed staking periods and reward rates, and Ava Labs expects inflation of about 5.5% to fall by 0.5–1 percentage point, but the exact new rate was not yet measured.
Avalanche carries real government and business use, but interest-based lending holds a large share of the money deposited in its apps.
This criterion looks at what the network is actually used for. Some of it is clearly permissible: the UAE runs its UAEPASS document vault on a dedicated Avalanche network, and about $1.4 billion of stablecoins circulate on Avalanche. A large share of on-chain finance is impermissible, though. Aave V3, an interest-based lending market, was the largest protocol on Avalanche with roughly $346 million of about $639 million of total deposits, and lending protocols (Aave, Benqi) were among the top fee earners over 30 days.
Lending is not shown to be the main purpose of the network, which also serves payments, infrastructure and custom networks, so the status is caution rather than fail.
Fully paid spot AVAX is widely available, and it can be held in one's own wallet.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. AVAX trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on major exchanges such as Binance and Bybit, and it can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet where the owner controls it directly. It is also held by regulated funds: the VanEck Avalanche ETF began trading on Nasdaq on 26 January 2026 and held about 1.73 million AVAX itself on 30 June 2026. Ownership therefore does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers. How specific funds are structured is assessed separately under trading mechanisms.
Avalanche brings real public benefit through government and business networks, and no large-scale harm specific to it was found.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is concrete: the UAE's telecom and digital government regulator runs its UAEPASS document vault, used by about 12.5 million people and more than 350 institutions, on a dedicated Avalanche network, and Kenya anchors academic records on Avalanche. Proof of stake uses little energy compared with mining. No study documenting fraud or abuse on a scale specific to Avalanche was found during this review. Speculative trading is counted under maysir and interest-based lending under usage, not again here.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying AVAX with full payment and immediate delivery is widely available on major exchanges, and coins can be moved to a self-custody wallet. Spot is acceptable for a DOUBTFUL asset for those who follow the permissive view.
US spot Avalanche funds hold AVAX itself, but their structure needs checking. The VanEck Avalanche ETF (VAVX) stakes most of its AVAX through Coinbase Crypto Services and passes the rewards to shareholders; its quarterly report to 30 June 2026 does not describe lending AVAX or a credit facility. The terms of the Grayscale and Bitwise funds were not verified.
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 Avalanche are made in stablecoins rather than AVAX.
Native staking, where you run a validator or delegate to a working one and get your AVAX back at the end of the period, pays new AVAX for validation work, so it is rated pass. There is no slashing, which some scholars see as making the return closer to risk-free. Liquid staking tokens (such as Benqi's sAVAX) and exchange staking are caution: they pool stake through an intermediary, and the receipt tokens are often deposited into interest-based lending markets.
Margin trading in AVAX is widely offered but is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
AVAX futures and perpetual contracts make up most of its trading on large exchanges, but futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage.
Lending AVAX on platforms such as Aave or Benqi, or through exchange lending programmes, pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba.
AVAX yield products built on lending, leveraged looping or basis trading pay interest or interest-like returns and fail. Native staking is assessed separately above; products that only pass on staking rewards are closer to the staking assessment, but their source must be checked product by product.
Scholars quotes
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.Based on this framework, simply buying and holding AVAX is Halal.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.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.Our current position is 'tawaquf'; we can't say it is halal or haram, but we say it is better not to engage in itBased on and subject to the foregoing information, and for the purposes of this conclusion, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that AVAX token is in breach of Sharia* principles and rulings as adopted by the scholars conducting this research.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.AI-assisted analysis checked against sources. Not a fatwa or investment advice.
Where it trades
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