BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund
BUIDL#49BUIDL is BlackRock's tokenized money market fund: each token is a $1 share backed by cash and US Treasury bills.
Fails our Shariah screening. Needs caution: nature of the asset and permissible ownership. Fails: interest (riba), business model, and usage.
- 3 pass
- 2 caution
- 3 fail
Verdict history
- Not halalCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund?8 Shariah criteria
3 pass · 2 caution · 3 failHolders receive the interest earned on Treasury bills and repo agreements, paid as new tokens every month. This is the core of the product.
Riba means interest, or any fixed increase on a loan. The fund's stated policy is to invest 100% of its assets in cash, US Treasury bills (short-term government debt sold at a discount) and repurchase agreements (short-term loans secured by Treasuries). Its stated objective is current income consistent with liquidity and stability of principal. That income is passed to holders: dividends accrue daily and are paid into investors' wallets as new BUIDL tokens each month, and the 7-day yield was about 3.6% a year on 27 September 2026. Calling the payment a 'dividend' does not change its source.
The International Islamic Fiqh Academy (Resolution 60, 1990) holds that interest-bearing bonds may not be issued, bought or traded, whether the issuer is private or a state, and that renaming them or calling the interest 'income' does not change the ruling. Applying it to a tokenised fund of Treasury bills is Liberandum's reading by analogy. A holder receiving interest from debt instruments is a clear fail.
- BlackRock launches tokenized fund that invests in repo on Ethereum (Finadium)
- Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) token
- BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized by Securitize, surpasses $1B in AUM (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- Resolutions and Recommendations of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Official Edition (October 2021), Resolution No. 60 (11/6): Bonds, p. 105
BUIDL is a real, legally documented share in a large fund, but what stands behind it is almost entirely debt that earns interest.
Unlike most crypto tokens, BUIDL is a claim on something real: each token is one share of a British Virgin Islands fund that filed with the SEC, holds its cash and securities with the Bank of New York Mellon and had sold about US$5.14 billion of shares by July 2026. There is no question that it has value. The question is what that value is. The fund's assets are Treasury bills and repo loans, which are debts owed to the fund, plus cash.
In Islamic law, trading a claim over debt (bay' al-dayn) for money other than at face value is generally not allowed, and the Fiqh Academy's bond ruling prohibits trading interest-bearing debt securities. Malaysia's Securities Commission Shariah Advisory Council accepts digital tokens as property (mal), but only as Shariah-compliant when the money raised goes to compliant uses and the rights attached are compliant; applying that test to BUIDL is Liberandum's reading, and BUIDL would not meet it. The asset is real but its substance is debt, so this criterion is caution.
- SEC Form D/A: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. (CIK 0002013810)
- BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized by Securitize, surpasses $1B in AUM (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- Resolutions of the Shariah Advisory Council of the SC — Digital Assets from Shariah Perspective (233rd and 234th meetings)
- Resolutions and Recommendations of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Official Edition (October 2021), Resolution No. 60 (11/6): Bonds, p. 105
BUIDL is designed to stay at US$1 and is held for steady income, not bet on.
Maysir means gambling, or gains that depend purely on chance; ordinary price movement is not maysir. The fund seeks a stable value of US$1 per token, CoinGecko has recorded it at US$1.00 throughout, and it has no exchange trading volume: holders subscribe and redeem with the fund through Securitize. There is no lottery, betting or speculative mechanism in the token itself. It is used as collateral for leveraged trading on some platforms; that is a problem of those trading products, weighed under usage and trading mechanisms, not a gambling feature of BUIDL.
Practically all of the fund's income is interest, far above the 5% limit on impermissible income.
This criterion looks at how the entity behind a token earns. If 5% or more of its income comes from clearly impermissible sources such as interest, the criterion fails. The fund's stated policy is to invest 100% of its assets in cash, Treasury bills and repurchase agreements, so essentially all of its income is interest; BlackRock earns a management fee on top (20 basis points a year on the Solana share class), which is a fee for managing an interest-bearing portfolio.
There is no permissible revenue stream to set against it, and purification (giving away the impermissible share) cannot help when the whole return is interest. Both screening firms that name BUIDL reach the same conclusion.
- BlackRock launches tokenized fund that invests in repo on Ethereum (Finadium)
- BlackRock and Securitize debut new BUIDL share class on Solana network (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) token
- Shariaquant — BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund
A regulated manager, a bank custodian and SEC filings make the fund transparent in its essentials, though full holdings are shown only to investors.
Gharar means excessive uncertainty or lack of transparency in a deal. BUIDL is run by BlackRock, its cash and securities are held by the Bank of New York Mellon, Securitize (an SEC-registered broker-dealer and transfer agent) keeps the register, and the fund files Form D with the SEC. The token supply is visible on each blockchain, and RWA.xyz lists PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor. The investment policy is narrow and simple: cash, Treasury bills and repos.
Some things are less open: fund documents and detailed holdings go to investors, not the public, and the token contract is upgradeable and lets the issuer restrict transfers to approved wallets and, as ShariaQuant notes, freeze tokens. These are normal features of a regulated security rather than hidden reserves, so this is a low pass.
- SEC Form D/A: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. (CIK 0002013810)
- BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized by Securitize, surpasses $1B in AUM (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) token
- Shariaquant — BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund
BUIDL's purpose is to earn interest on dollars held on-chain; it is also used as collateral for leveraged trading.
This criterion fails when the main purpose is interest-based finance. Securitize lists BUIDL's uses as treasury management, stablecoin backing, DeFi access and collateral for trading; in each case the point is to hold dollars that earn Treasury and repo interest. Binance accepts it as collateral for trading because, in its own words, institutional clients wanted 'interest-bearing stable assets' to hold while trading, and CoinDesk reported in May 2026 that BUIDL is increasingly used as collateral for borrowing and leveraged trading.
Its fast 24/7 transfers are a real service, but it is not used for payments or to tokenise a permissible asset.
- BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized by Securitize, surpasses $1B in AUM (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- BlackRock's BUIDL, tokenized by Securitize, now accepted as collateral for trading on Binance and launches on BNB Chain (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- BlackRock deepens tokenization push with new onchain fund offerings (CoinDesk)
BUIDL can be held fully paid, but only by qualified investors who subscribe through Securitize, with a high minimum investment.
This criterion asks only whether the token can be owned in a normal, fully paid way, not whether the asset itself is permissible. BUIDL is not a leveraged or derivative wrapper: investors buy fund shares outright and hold the tokens in their own approved wallets. But ownership is open only through one limited route. The fund is a private offering for qualified purchasers under US securities exemptions; the initial minimum was given as US$5 million in November 2024, and the July 2026 Form D records US$100,000 as the smallest investment accepted.
Transfers are limited to whitelisted wallets, and it does not trade on ordinary crypto exchanges. For almost all readers, therefore, BUIDL cannot be bought at all.
- SEC Form D/A: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund Ltd. (CIK 0002013810)
- BlackRock launches Digital Liquidity Fund BUIDL on Avalanche via Securitize (Avalanche blog)
- Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) token
- CoinGecko: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL)
BUIDL is a regulated, identity-checked product with no link to fraud or sanctions evasion; its benefit is faster settlement for institutions.
Maslahah means weighing public benefit against harm. BUIDL brings round-the-clock settlement and on-chain transfer to a conventional money market fund, which institutions use for cash management. Investors subscribe through Securitize, an SEC-registered broker-dealer and transfer agent, the fund is limited to qualified purchasers, transfers are limited to approved wallets, and no link to scams or sanctions evasion was found. The interest itself is weighed under the interest and business model criteria, not counted again here.
Its use as collateral for leveraged trading is a harm but a limited one, so this is a low pass.
- BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), tokenized by Securitize, surpasses $1B in AUM (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- BlackRock's BUIDL, tokenized by Securitize, now accepted as collateral for trading on Binance and launches on BNB Chain (Securitize, PR Newswire)
- Shariaquant — BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBUIDL is not on ordinary exchanges; qualified investors subscribe to and redeem fund shares through Securitize. Even a fully paid purchase buys a share in interest income, and spot purchase is acceptable only for an asset rated HALAL or DOUBTFUL, so it fails here.
There is no exchange-traded fund that holds BUIDL. BUIDL is itself a fund whose whole income is interest, so any fund holding it would pass that interest on and would fail the structure check.
BUIDL is not a means of payment: it is an interest-bearing security that moves only between approved wallets. Paying with it would transfer a share in interest income.
There is no staking: BUIDL is not a proof-of-stake coin and involves no validation work. Any product marketed as earning on BUIDL would add a return on top of interest.
Always fail: borrowing to trade with leverage, without full delivery. BUIDL is used as collateral for this on Binance and other platforms.
Always fail: futures, perpetuals and options are deferred exchanges without delivery, with leverage.
Lending with a fixed or guaranteed return is riba; lending BUIDL, or borrowing against it, adds interest on top of an interest-bearing asset.
BUIDL is itself a yield product: its return is interest on Treasury bills and repo agreements, paid monthly as new tokens.
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.If a digital token is backed by ribawi items, the trading of such digital token is subject to the Shariah requirements for trading of ribawi items.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.The bonds which represent a commitment to pay its amount along with an interest related to its nominal value or to a predetermined profit are prohibited in Shariah.Regarding the holding of the token, simply buying and holding BUIDL is Haram.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 itAs 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
No exchanges from our coverage trade BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund yet
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