Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund
USTB#88USTB is a share of a tokenised US Treasury bill fund managed by Invesco, whose value grows with the interest the bills earn.
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 Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund?8 Shariah criteria
3 pass · 2 caution · 3 failThe fund's return is interest on US Treasury bills, added to the value of each share every market day. This is the core of the product.
Riba means interest, or any fixed increase on a loan. Superstate's documentation says the fund invests in short-duration US Treasury bills (short-term government debt sold at a discount) and that its return 'accrues as interest income', reflected in a continuously increasing net asset value per share (NAV/S). At launch the fund was described as targeting returns in line with the US federal funds rate. Holders do not receive new tokens or cash; instead each token becomes worth more, from US$10 at launch to about US$11.22 on 27 September 2026.
Accumulating interest inside the share price rather than paying it out does not change its source: the holder's gain is interest on government debt. 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 does not change the ruling. Applying it to a tokenised Treasury bill fund is Liberandum's reading by analogy. A holder earning interest from debt instruments is a clear fail.
- NAV, income and yield (Superstate documentation)
- Invesco USTB (Superstate documentation)
- Superstate Debuts Tokenized Short-Term Treasury Fund on Ethereum to Compete for Zero-Yield Stablecoins (CoinDesk)
- Resolutions and Recommendations of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Official Edition (October 2021), Resolution No. 60 (11/6): Bonds, p. 105
USTB is a real, legally documented share in a regulated-manager fund, but what stands behind it is interest-bearing government debt.
Unlike most crypto tokens, USTB is a claim on something real: each token is one share of a series of the Superstate Asset Trust, a Delaware trust that files Form D with the SEC; the July 2026 filing reports about US$5.92 billion sold since February 2024. There is no question that it has value. The question is what that value is. The fund's assets are US Treasury bills, which are debts owed to the fund by the US government.
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 as Shariah-compliant only when the money raised goes to compliant uses and the rights attached are compliant; applying that test to USTB is Liberandum's reading, and USTB would not meet it. The asset is real but its substance is debt, so this criterion is caution.
- SEC Form D/A: Invesco Short Duration US Government Securities Fund, a separate series of Superstate Asset Trust (CIK 0002004367)
- Invesco USTB (Superstate documentation)
- 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
USTB's value rises slowly with Treasury bill interest 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. USTB's NAV per share moves slowly and almost only upwards as interest accrues: from US$10 at launch to a low of US$10.29 in February 2025 and US$11.22 in September 2026 on CoinGecko. It has no exchange trading volume: holders subscribe and redeem with the fund at NAV in US dollars or USDC. There is no lottery, betting or speculative mechanism in the token itself.
Practically all of the fund's income is interest on Treasury bills, 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 invests in short-duration US Treasury bills, so essentially all of its income is interest; the manager (Invesco since July 2026) earns a management fee of 0.15% a year, which is a fee for managing an interest-bearing portfolio, and Superstate earns from providing tokenisation and transfer-agent services to it.
There is no permissible revenue stream to set against the interest, and purification (giving away the impermissible share) cannot help when the whole return is interest.
A large regulated manager, SEC filings, public contract documentation and audits 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. USTB is managed by Invesco Advisers, files Form D with the SEC, and Superstate publishes how NAV is calculated, how subscriptions and redemptions work, the contract addresses and at least 12 security reviews of its contracts (ChainSecurity and 0xMacro). RWA.xyz lists UMB Bank as custodian, NAV Fund Services as administrator and Ernst & Young as auditor. The investment policy is narrow and simple: short-duration Treasury bills.
Some things are less open: offering documents and detailed holdings go to investors, not the public, and the contracts are upgradeable, with Superstate's admin address able to mint, change the allowlist and forcibly burn tokens. These are normal features of a regulated security rather than hidden reserves, so this is a low pass.
USTB's purpose is to earn Treasury bill interest on dollars held on-chain.
This criterion fails when the main purpose is interest-based finance. USTB was launched as an alternative to holding stablecoins that pay nothing: crypto funds and firms park dollars in it to earn a return in line with the federal funds rate, subscribing and redeeming in USDC. Its round-the-clock NAV and on-chain transfers are real services, but the point of holding it is the interest. It is not used for payments or to tokenise a permissible asset.
USTB can be held fully paid, but only by approved qualified purchasers who subscribe with the fund, with a US$100,000 minimum.
This criterion asks only whether the token can be owned in a normal, fully paid way, not whether the asset itself is permissible. USTB is not a leveraged or derivative wrapper: investors buy fund shares outright with US dollars or USDC and hold the tokens in their own allowlisted wallets or in book-entry form. But ownership is open only through one limited route. The fund is a private offering for qualified purchasers under US securities exemptions; investors must pass KYC/AML and be approved, and the minimum is US$100,000 unless waived.
Transfers are limited to allowlisted wallets, and the token does not trade on ordinary crypto exchanges. For almost all readers, therefore, USTB cannot be bought at all.
USTB 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. USTB brings a continuously priced NAV, instant USDC settlement and on-chain transfer to a conventional Treasury bill fund, which institutions use for cash management. Investors must pass KYC/AML checks and be approved, transfers are limited to allowlisted 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, so this is a low pass.
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesUSTB is not on ordinary exchanges; approved qualified purchasers subscribe to and redeem fund shares at NAV. 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 USTB. USTB is itself a fund whose whole return is interest, so any fund holding it would pass that interest on and would fail the structure check.
USTB is not a means of payment: it is an interest-bearing security that moves only between allowlisted wallets. Paying with it would transfer a share in interest income.
There is no staking: USTB is not a proof-of-stake coin and involves no validation work. Any product marketed as earning on USTB would add a return on top of interest.
Always fail: borrowing to trade with leverage, without full delivery.
Always fail: futures, perpetuals and options are deferred exchanges without delivery, with leverage.
Lending with a fixed or guaranteed return is riba; lending USTB, or borrowing against it, adds interest on top of an interest-bearing asset.
USTB is itself a yield product: its return is interest on Treasury bills, accrued daily into the value of each share.
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.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
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