Venice Token

Staking pays newly created VVV, not interest from lending, but stakers do no network work, so the nature of the yield is unclear.

Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. Holding VVV earns nothing. Staking VVV returns sVVV (a receipt) and, in Venice's words, staked VVV earns emissions: the reward is newly created VVV, not money lent to borrowers. The rate is not fixed. Venice set emissions at 14 million VVV a year at launch and has cut them in steps to 2.5 million a year from 1 September 2026. Unlike proof-of-stake rewards, this yield does not pay for validating a network: VVV stakers run nothing, and the yield is a share of new issuance that dilutes non-stakers.

VVV gives real access to a working AI service, but that value depends on one company, and religious bodies disagree whether cryptocurrency is property (mal).

Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. VVV has a working use: staked VVV mints DIEM, and each staked DIEM pays for $1 of Venice API credit a day, so holders get AI inference without paying per request. Venice reported 3.5 million registered users and about 2 million API calls a day in July 2026. The utility depends entirely on Venice the company continuing to honour DIEM credit; there is no independent network behind the token.

VVV is not a gambling token, but its price rose more than 30 times in under ten months and perpetual futures trade more than spot.

Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and VVV has no chance-based payout. Its market is highly speculative, though. VVV fell from $19.38 to $2.44 in its first week, hit a low of $0.92 on 1 December 2025 and a high of $34.53 on 21 September 2026. On 27 September 2026 VVVUSDT perpetual futures traded about $27.9 million on Binance and $11.4 million on Bybit in 24 hours, more than the roughly $31 million of spot volume across all markets tracked by CoinGecko.

Venice earns service fees from AI subscriptions and API credits, but it offers adult content and does not publish how much revenue comes from it.

This criterion asks how the issuer earns and whether any of that income is impermissible. VVV has a clear issuer: Venice.ai, based in Sheridan, Wyoming. It earns from Pro, Pro+ and Max subscriptions and from API credits bought by card or cryptocurrency; these are fees for an AI service. The Series A announcement reported 3.5 million registered users, and Phemex reported a founder statement of a $100 million revenue run rate in August 2026. Part of this revenue buys and burns VVV, including $5 of every $100 of API credits.

Emissions and burns are announced publicly, but Venice holds an owner-only mint on the contract, changes emissions at will and gives holders no vote.

Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Some things are disclosed: the genesis allocation, the emission schedule and its cuts are published on Venice's blog, burns are tracked on a dashboard, and the contract source is verified on Basescan. But control is concentrated. The contract's mint function is restricted to its owner and the code sets no maximum supply, so the issuance limit rests on Venice's word rather than code; Venice has cut emissions several times by its own decision, and the token has no governance.

The token pays for AI computation, a permissible use, but the uncensored service includes adult content and documented misuse.

This criterion looks at what the asset is actually used for. VVV is used for staking and for minting DIEM, which pays for AI inference: text, image, video and audio models, used by people and AI agents. Computation is a permissible use, and the main purpose of the service is general private AI, not a prohibited activity. A notable share of use is disputed, though. Venice deliberately does not restrict what users ask, and adults can switch off the mature content filter, so adult content can be generated.

Private AI has real value, but an uncensored service with adult content and documented use for malware and phishing is a significant harm.

Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is real: Venice offers AI without logging prompts, with encrypted and trusted-execution modes, which protects users' privacy, and it serves millions of registered users. The harm is also significant. By design Venice does not restrict what users ask, adult content is available once the mature filter is off, and in May 2025 Certo researchers showed the chatbot producing working phishing, ransomware and spyware code and found it promoted on hacking forums.