PAX Gold

Holding 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.