Stacks
STX#85STX is the token of Stacks, a network that adds smart contracts and apps to Bitcoin.
- Market cap
- $582.03M
- Volume 24h
- $37.35M
- All-time high
- $3.86
- −91.69% from ATH
- Circulating supply
- 1.87B
Does not clear all 8 Shariah criteria. Needs caution: interest (riba), nature of the asset, gambling (maysir), excessive uncertainty (gharar), and usage.
- 3 pass
- 5 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- DoubtfulCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Stacks?8 Shariah criteria
3 pass · 5 caution · 0 failHolding STX pays nothing, and stacking rewards come from miners' BTC rather than a loan, but PoX-5 pays BTC bonds a preset target yield ahead of STX stackers.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Simply holding STX earns nothing. The native return is stacking: a holder locks STX for 1 to 96 two-week cycles and names a signer-manager, which backs the signers that confirm Stacks blocks. The reward is paid in BTC that miners spend to win the right to produce blocks, so it is funded by miners, not by a borrower. STX is never lent out, and there is no slashing: a failing signer loses rewards, not principal. On this basis Sharlife (2022) and ShariaQuant (2026) treat stacking as permissible.
The PoX-5 upgrade (SIP-045, activated in late July 2026) changed the structure. All miner BTC now goes into a reward pool paid through a 'waterfall': BTC:STX bonds (six-month locks of BTC with STX) are paid their target yield first, and only the remainder is split 85% to STX-only stackers and 15% to a reserve that tops up bond payouts when miner revenue falls short. During a bootstrap of about a year the Stacks Endowment sets the target rate, proposed at 3% a year. No BTC is lent and SIP-045 does not describe the target as guaranteed, but a preset percentage return on locked money, backed by a reserve, resembles a fixed return and has not been reviewed by any scholarly body. STX-only stacking remains a variable residual reward. Because the new structure is unclear in Shariah terms, this criterion is caution.
Stacks is a working network and STX 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. Stacks works: it has produced blocks since 2021, added fast blocks with the Nakamoto upgrade in October 2024, and STX is needed to pay fees, is the miners' block reward and is locked to back the network's signers. 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 (MUI allows only crypto with an underlying that meets the conditions of a tradable good), and the OIC Fiqh Academy (2019) deferred a ruling. None of them names Stacks. 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
- Shariah rules and crypto disputes: UAE court judgment and official Fatwa invalidate cryptocurrency transaction - Wasel & Wasel
- Kripto paraların kullanımının dini hükmü nedir? - Din İşleri Yüksek Kurulu (Diyanet)
STX is not a gambling token, but most of its trading on the largest exchange is in futures.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and STX has no chance-based payout of its own (the random choice of block producer among miners is a way to share block production, not a wager by holders). The market around STX is heavily speculative, though. On Binance on 27 September 2026, STXUSDT perpetual futures traded about $15.0 million in 24 hours against about $2.47 million spot, so futures were about 86% of the combined figure. This is a single-exchange, single-day snapshot.
No evidence was found that memecoin or betting activity dominates the Stacks network. A real function exists, so the asset is not built for gambling.
There is no issuer earning for holders: miners pay BTC to produce blocks and earn STX and fees, and that BTC is paid out as rewards.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. The protocol's inflows are miners' BTC bids and transaction fees. Miners receive the STX block reward and fees for producing blocks; their BTC goes to the reward pool, which pays bonds, STX stackers and a protocol reserve. None of this is interest, gambling or income from a prohibited industry. Blockstack PBC sold STX in 2019, but after Stacks 2.0 the company said it no longer controls the network, and no company collects revenue on behalf of STX holders.
The Stacks Foundation and the Stacks Endowment fund grants and ecosystem programmes, including a 3 BTC incentive programme that rewards lending and borrowing on Zest; that is spending on ecosystem activity (assessed under usage), not protocol revenue. Their own funding and treasury are not published, which is recorded as a data gap.
Code, supply and proposals are public, but the emission rate is provisional, reward terms are set by the Endowment during bootstrap, and sBTC relies on a small signer set.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Much is transparent: the node software is open source, changes go through public SIPs and holder votes (SIP-045 passed almost unanimously), all 1.87 billion STX are unlocked, and supply is visible through the Hiro API. Three points of real uncertainty remain. First, supply rules have changed twice in two years: SIP-029 cut issuance, then SIP-045 restored 1,000 STX per Bitcoin block with no reductions and calls this rate provisional pending a PoX-6 proposal; there is no cap.
Second, during PoX-5's bootstrap of about a year the Stacks Endowment sets bond capacity, target yield and the BTC:STX ratio, which affects what STX stackers receive. Third, sBTC, used by Dual Stacking and pooled bonds, depends on a threshold set of 15 community-chosen signers holding the backing BTC. These are disclosed, not hidden, so the status is caution rather than fail.
Stacks is used for Bitcoin apps and staking, but interest-based lending is a notable part of its small DeFi ecosystem and is actively incentivised.
This criterion looks at what the network is actually used for. Much of it is permissible or neutral: paying fees for smart contracts, stacking, Bitcoin staking bonds that institutions such as 21Shares and Anchorage are joining, sBTC transfers and decentralised exchanges such as Bitflow. The DeFi ecosystem is small, with about $89 million of total value locked on 27 September 2026. Within it, lending protocols are a notable part: Granite held about $7.1 million, and Zest's Stacks market had about $13 million of outstanding borrows in mid-September.
The Stacks Endowment's Stack Sats programme (10 September – 10 December 2026) pays BTC rewards for supplying sBTC to Zest and for borrowing USDCx against sBTC or STX, and Dual Stacking gives a 10x reward boost to sBTC deployed in DeFi. Lending is not shown to be the network's main purpose, so the status is caution rather than fail.
Fully paid spot STX is available on major exchanges and can be held in one's own wallet.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. STX trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on major exchanges such as Binance, and in September 2026 it was listed on Bullish. It can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet, where the owner controls it directly. Ownership therefore does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers.
Stacks adds programmability to Bitcoin without taking custody of users' BTC in bonds, and no dominant harm was found.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is real: Stacks lets Bitcoin be used in smart contracts and apps, and PoX-5 bonds keep BTC in the owner's own Bitcoin script rather than with a custodian. No large-scale fraud, sanctions evasion or exploitation linked to Stacks was found in this review. The harms noted elsewhere, speculative futures trading and lending incentives, are counted under maysir and usage and not again here.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying STX with full payment and immediate delivery is 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.
No US spot exchange-traded fund holding STX was found in this review. Exchange-traded products outside the US were not checked; any fund would need to be checked for staking income, lending of the underlying and interest income before it could be treated like spot.
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 (Bank Indonesia) and is banned in Turkey. STX is mainly used for network fees rather than everyday payments.
STX-only stacking is funded by miners' BTC, keeps STX in the holder's control and has no slashing, and screeners such as Sharlife and ShariaQuant rate it permissible. Since PoX-5 (July 2026), however, STX stackers receive only what is left after BTC bonds are paid a target yield set by the Stacks Endowment, and the holder usually relies on a signer-manager rather than doing the work. Bonds themselves (BTC plus STX) earn a preset target yield backed by a reserve, which resembles a fixed return. Liquid stacking tokens (such as StackingDAO's) add an intermediary. Until scholars review the PoX-5 structure, stacking is rated caution.
Margin trading in STX is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
STX perpetual futures are most of its trading volume on Binance, but futures, perpetuals and options always fail under AAOIFI SS 20: deferred exchange without delivery, usually with leverage.
Lending STX or sBTC on platforms such as Zest or Granite, or through exchange lending programmes, pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba, and extra BTC rewards for supplying or borrowing (such as the Stack Sats programme) do not change that.
STX yield products must be judged by their source. Products built on lending or leveraged borrowing pay interest and fail. Dual Stacking pays BTC-denominated rewards whose funding source is not stated in the docs and boosts sBTC deployed in DeFi, including lending. Products that only pass on stacking rewards follow the staking assessment above. Because sources are mixed or unclear, the status is caution.
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.The Halal verdict for Stacks is based on a three-layer Shariah screen evaluating its infrastructure, application, and the asset itself.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 itWe concluded STACKS as Shariah-CompliantAs 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 Stacks yet
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