Worldcoin
WLD#48WLD is the token of World, a network that verifies that people are human.
- Market cap
- $1.9B
- Volume 24h
- $713.5M
- All-time high
- $11.74
- −95.80% from ATH
- Circulating supply
- 3.72B of 10B
Does not clear all 8 Shariah criteria. Needs caution: nature of the asset, gambling (maysir), business model, excessive uncertainty (gharar), usage, and benefit and harm (maslahah).
- 2 pass
- 6 caution
- 0 fail
Verdict history
- DoubtfulCurrent
First publication
Fundamentals, market picture and news will appear here.
Halal analysis
Can a Muslim hold Worldcoin?8 Shariah criteria
2 pass · 6 caution · 0 failHolding WLD pays nothing: there is no native staking or holder yield, and grants go to people for verifying, not as interest.
Riba means interest or any guaranteed increase on a loan. WLD's tokenomics describe distribution through grants to verified humans, payments for network operations and an ecosystem fund; they describe no native staking, burning or holder yield. Simply holding WLD earns nothing. The grants that verified people receive are a distribution of the community allocation, not a return on money lent.
Interest-like returns exist only as optional add-ons outside the token itself: since 17 September 2026 World App's Earn tab lets users deposit WLD into reward programs powered by Morpho, a lending protocol, with variable, non-guaranteed rates, and third-party platforms lend WLD. Those are assessed under trading mechanisms (lending and yield), not as a feature of the asset.
World's identity network works at scale, but WLD's own utility is still thin, its whitepaper frames it as a share in network value, and official religious bodies disagree whether crypto is property (mal).
Mal is property that Islamic law recognises as having value and that can be owned and traded. The network behind WLD is real: The Block reported in July 2026 that more than 18 million people had completed Orb verification and more than 475 million World ID proofs had been generated, and World ID is being integrated by Tinder, Okta and Vercel. WLD's own role is narrower. It is handed out as grants and used for swaps and Mini Apps in World App; World ID fees payable in WLD were announced in April 2025 with a pilot planned for Q3 2025, but whether they are live was not confirmed.
Gas on World Chain is not shown to be paid in WLD. The whitepaper says owning WLD 'represents a proportional share in the value created by the World Network', wording closer to an investment claim, while the 2026 token sale said the tokens carry no rights to profits. Tier-1 bodies also disagree on crypto in general: Malaysia's SC Shariah Advisory Council (2020) treats digital currency without an underlying as goods ('urudh), while Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, the UAE's GAIAE, Turkey's Diyanet and Indonesia's MUI prohibit dealing in cryptocurrencies. None names WLD. This criterion therefore cannot be 'pass'.
WLD is not a gambling token, but its trading is dominated by perpetual futures and its price has fallen more than 95% from its peak.
Maysir is gambling: winning or losing by chance rather than through productive exchange. Ordinary price swings are not maysir, and WLD has no chance-based payout of its own. Its market is heavily speculative, though. On 27 September 2026 Binance's WLDUSDT perpetual futures traded about $550 million in 24 hours against about $94 million on the spot pair, so futures were about 85% of that volume (a single-day snapshot on one exchange). WLD traded around $0.57, down from an all-time high of $11.74 in March 2024.
A real function exists alongside the speculation: WLD is the grant and payment token of a working identity network used by millions of people, so the asset is not built for gambling.
There is an issuer: the World Foundation funds itself by selling WLD, and neither it nor Tools for Humanity publishes a revenue mix, so the 5% threshold cannot be checked.
This criterion asks how the issuer or protocol earns, and whether any of that income is impermissible. Unlike Bitcoin, WLD has clear issuers: World Assets Ltd issues the community tokens, and the World Foundation, a Cayman Islands foundation, governs the token and sells it to investors to fund the network ($135 million in May 2025 and $52.5 million in July 2026). Tools for Humanity is a separate venture-backed company that builds the Orb and World App.
Planned World ID fees are service fees paid by apps, which is permissible in principle, and World Chain fees are small (about $19,900 over 30 days, per DefiLlama). But neither the foundation nor Tools for Humanity publishes its revenue sources or treasury management, so any interest on cash reserves or income from newer financial features, such as the World Money Earn tab built on Morpho lending, cannot be measured. Because the data for the 5% and 20% thresholds is missing, the status is caution.
The supply cap and unlock schedule are public and enforced by a non-upgradable contract, but a quarter went to insiders, unlocks run to 2028 and the foundation controls the community allocation.
Gharar is excessive uncertainty or hidden information in a deal. Much is transparent: the supply is fixed at 10 billion WLD, the contract is verified and not upgradable, no new tokens can be minted until July 2038, unlocks follow published on-chain schedules without cliffs, and the Orb and World Chain software is open source on GitHub. The concerns are concentration and discretion. 25% of supply went to the Tools for Humanity team (11.1%), its investors (13.6%) and a reserve (0.3%), and their tokens keep unlocking until about July 2028.
In April 2026 only 3.3 billion of 4.9 billion unlocked tokens were circulating. The World Foundation currently acts as steward of the protocol, including the 75% community allocation, and sells tokens to investors, while its treasury is not disclosed. One treasury company, Eightco, held about 277 million WLD in March 2026, close to 10% of circulating supply. These are large pending unlocks and concentrated control rather than hidden minting, so the status is caution.
WLD is mostly used for grants, payments and swaps in an identity network, but the main wallet now promotes depositing WLD into lending-based earn programs.
This criterion looks at what the asset is actually used for. The main uses are permissible: WLD is distributed as grants to verified humans, used for payments, swaps and Mini Apps in World App, and planned as the currency for World ID fees charged to apps. Proof of personhood itself is a legitimate service, used for example against bots and fake accounts. A notable disputed use has appeared, though. Since 17 September 2026 World App's World Money offers an Earn tab where WLD can be deposited into programs powered by Morpho, a lending protocol, and ShariaQuant notes third-party lending of WLD.
Because this is built into the main wallet through which WLD is distributed, and its share of WLD holdings is unknown, the status is caution rather than pass.
Fully paid spot WLD is widely available and can be held in a self-custody wallet.
This criterion asks whether the asset can be owned in a permissible way. WLD trades spot, with full payment and delivery, on major exchanges such as Binance, and it is an ordinary ERC-20 token that can be withdrawn to a self-custody wallet on Ethereum, Optimism or World Chain, including World App. Ownership does not depend on derivatives or leveraged wrappers. Eligibility for grants is limited by country and age, but buying and holding the token is not.
Proving someone is human without revealing who they are is a real benefit, but paying people in tokens for iris scans has drawn privacy orders, a court ruling and suspensions in many countries.
Maslahah weighs public benefit against harm. The benefit is real: as AI makes bots and deepfakes cheaper, a privacy-preserving way to prove a unique human is useful, and World says iris data is encrypted, kept on the user's phone and checked with anonymised computation. The harm is significant and documented by regulators and courts.
Spain's AEPD (March 2024) and Portugal's CNPD (March 2024, over scans of minors) halted collection; the Bavarian authority ordered a GDPR-compliant deletion procedure and deletion of some data in late December 2024 (under appeal); South Korea's privacy regulator fined the foundation and Tools for Humanity 1.1 billion won in September 2024; Kenya's High Court ordered biometric data deleted in May 2025; and Indonesia suspended World's operating permit the same month. The Madrid court noted doubts about consent as a valid legal basis for the scans. The harm concerns how WLD is distributed rather than the token itself, so the status is caution, near the lower bound.
- Worldcoin fails to get injunction against Spain's privacy suspension (TechCrunch)
- Worldcoin hit with another ban order in Europe citing risks to kids (TechCrunch)
- World(coin) must let Europeans comprehensively delete their data, under privacy order (TechCrunch)
- South Korea fines Worldcoin and Tools For Humanity for data privacy violations (The Block)
How you can use it
Tap a card for the ruling and sourcesBuying WLD with full payment and immediate delivery is available on major exchanges, and tokens can be moved to a self-custody wallet. Spot is acceptable for a DOUBTFUL asset for those who follow the permissive view.
No spot WLD exchange-traded fund was found. Listed companies that hold WLD as a treasury asset, such as Eightco, are shares in a company, not a fund holding the asset, and are not assessed here.
WLD can be sent and spent inside World App, but tier-1 bodies such as Indonesia's MUI rule that using cryptocurrency as currency is not permissible, and crypto payments are restricted in several of the covered jurisdictions.
WLD has no native staking: it does not secure a proof-of-stake network. Products labelled 'staking' for WLD on exchanges are not validation work, so their source of return is unclear and they are rated caution.
Margin trading in WLD is offered on major exchanges but is never acceptable: it is a deferred exchange with borrowed money and leverage (AAOIFI SS 20).
WLD perpetual futures are the largest part 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 WLD on third-party platforms or DeFi lending markets pays depositors interest from borrowers. This is riba.
World App's Earn tab (launched 17 September 2026) deposits WLD into programs powered by Morpho, a lending protocol; the rewards come from borrowers, which makes them interest-like, so it fails, as do exchange 'earn' products built on lending.
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.Based on this matrix, simply buying and holding WLD is Halal, as its primary utility is governance and paying L2 gas fees.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 Worldcoin yet
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