Halal Bourse

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Is Ethereum Classic (ETC) halal?

Permitted

The six conditions are met for a spot purchase.

Verdict calculated by Halal Bourse's published rules from an investigation of primary sources (project documentation, registers, decisions), conducted on 10/07/2026 and not reviewed by a human.

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The asset

Native currency of the Ethereum Classic network (layer-1 smart contract platform, Etchash proof of work), which emerged in 2016 from the original Ethereum chain after The DAO incident Issuer: No issuer: the MiCA white paper states that the project is not led by a central legal entity but is supported by community organizations such as the Ethereum Classic Cooperative Inc.; Grayscale's prospectus states that its development has been overseen by a group of developers affiliated with ETC Labs, ETC Core and/or the Ethereum Classic Cooperative..

ETC pays transaction fees and the computation cost of smart contracts on the Ethereum Classic network and rewards miners. Supply is capped at 210.7 million ETC (ECIP-1017: block reward reduced by 20% every five million blocks, about every two years; 2.048 ETC per block since May 2024). According to CoinMarketCap, 158.67 million ETC in circulation as of October 7, 2026 (rank 56); according to Grayscale's prospectus, about 154.9 million as of December 31, 2025.

Why this verdict

  1. Permissible purpose : met. ETC is used to pay transaction fees and the computation cost of smart contracts on the Ethereum Classic network; the use is described by the MiCA white paper filed in Germany and by a fund's annual report filed with the SEC.
  2. No riba : met. Holding ETC pays no return: the network is proof of work, with no staking or validator reward, and no balance changes other than through a transaction by the holder. No loan is involved in a spot purchase.
  3. No gambling : met. A spot purchase is of a network's native token, used to pay fees and for goods or services on that network; it is not a contract on a price difference.
  4. No excessive gharar : met. The issuance rules are published and final (ECIP-1017, status “Final”: cap of about 210.7 million, reward reduced by 20% every five million blocks); the initial distribution is that of Ethereum at its 2015 launch (72 million units created at launch), renamed ETC after the July 2016 fork. No entity controls the network: rules change through voluntary adoption of new versions by nodes and miners, following public proposals (ECIP). No anonymous party controlling issuance, the treasury or the keys was found.
  5. Real ownership : met. ETC is held in a personal wallet (software or hardware) whose keys the user keeps: the project's website lists many wallets and recommends a hardware wallet for large amounts, and the MiCA white paper states that a wallet's balance changes only through a transaction by its holder. The choice of purchase platform was not studied.
  6. No fraud or manipulation : met. No sanction or deception toward ETC buyers was found; the AMF blacklist and the IOSCO I-SCAN return nothing for “ethereum classic”. The network suffered 51% attacks by third parties (January 2019 double spend by an unknown actor; the prospectus then mentions a “limited number” of 51% attacks, which led to protection against chain reorganizations in October 2020): network security incidents, not deception by the team. The 100 largest wallets hold about 80% of ETC (exchanges included): concentration alone, information under the Halal Bourse rule. The GoPlus scan does not apply to the native currency (see scan_securite for the BNB Chain version).
  7. Réseau ouvert et généraliste : met. un outil neutre

Tolerance case

T1. ETC is the native currency of an open network (proof of work: any miner or node operator can take part, and no entity owns or runs it) and a general-purpose one (payments and smart contracts). No issuer earns revenue from holding the token (T2 and T3 do not apply).

Contract security scan

The starting file scans only the token's version on BNB Chain (0x3d65…c25e), which is not the native ETC currency but a representation on another chain: only 949,833 units, about 0.6% of ETC in circulation; the contract creator (0xfc19…) is not identified. GoPlus scan: 41,472 holders; code published; token on GoPlus's trust list; no honeypot or tax; minting and blacklist “unknown” (the contract is a proxy, which prevents reading). Signals found: contract modifiable through a proxy; top ten wallets excluding exchanges and contracts: 53.9% of this version's supply. Reading: the scan does not apply to the native currency (rule A.8); these two signals concern a bridged version from an unidentified issuer and are not used for c6, which judges the purchase of the native currency. For Halal Bourse to decide: if the site offers this BEP-20 contract for purchase, the two-signal rule would disqualify it.

Opinions found during the research

Opinions reported as read, named for what they are; they do not enter into the calculation of the verdict.

What could not be verified

Sources read

Other cryptos analyzed

General information: neither investment advice nor a fatwa. Verdict calculated by published rules, from financial statements read automatically and not reviewed by a human. Read the methodology