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Is Bittensor (TAO) halal?

Questionable

No condition fails, but 1 point remains to be verified or falls under a tolerated case.

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 Bittensor network (Subtensor chain, a layer 1 for artificial intelligence subnets; described as proof of authority in Grayscale's prospectus, as proof of stake in the MiCA white paper) Issuer: The Opentensor Foundation, a non-profit company in Toronto (Canada), incorporated on May 18, 2021, which administers the protocol; its three directors are named in the MiCA white paper (Ramsay Newton, Etienne Leroy, Westley Tan). Co-founders Jacob Steeves and Ala Shaabana stepped down from their executive roles on February 13, 2026. The network was designed in a white paper signed with the pseudonym Yuma Rao, according to Grayscale's prospectus..

TAO is used to pay transaction fees on the Subtensor chain and to stake on validators and subnets; it is issued by the protocol for the benefit of subnet owners, miners, validators and liquidity providers. The supply is capped at 21 million TAO; the first halving took place in December 2025 (daily issuance cut from about 7,200 to about 3,600 TAO). According to CoinMarketCap, 11.59 million TAO were in circulation on October 7, 2026 (rank 29).

Why this verdict

  1. Permissible purpose : met. TAO pays the transaction fees of the Subtensor chain and is used to take part in the network (staking on validators, providing liquidity to subnets); the use is described by the issuer's MiCA white paper and by the prospectus of a fund filed with the SEC.
  2. No riba : met. Holding TAO pays nothing in itself: new TAO are issued by the protocol to those who perform a function (subnet owners, miners, validators, liquidity providers), and the token gives no right to any income from the issuer. No loan is involved in the spot purchase. Staking is covered in autres_constats.
  3. No gambling : met. A spot purchase is of a network's native token, which pays fees and is freely transferable; it is not a contract on a price difference.
  4. No excessive gharar : to be verified or tolerated case. The supply (21 million) and the issuance rule are published, and the MiCA white paper declares no pre-mining and no allocation to the team, investors or the foundation. However, a 3-of-3 multisig of the foundation retains the authority to update the protocol and pause the network, and Grayscale's prospectus describes a “sudo” key that makes it possible to modify the ledger unilaterally, including the number of TAO and an account's balance; Bittensor's documentation states that the new governance system is not deployed and that the mainnet still uses this key (status as of June 2026). The foundation is identified (named directors), but no source read names the multisig signers: their identity could not be established.
  5. Real ownership : met. TAO is held in a wallet whose keys the user keeps (third-party wallets, Ledger through those wallets); the issuer does not hold the balances. Caveat: the foundation can pause the network, as it did in July 2024 after wallet keys were stolen through a booby-trapped software package (the network was not fully reopened for ten days); this power is reported in c4 and autres_constats.
  6. No fraud or manipulation : met. No sanction or established deception toward TAO buyers was found; the AMF blacklist and IOSCO's I-SCAN return nothing for “bittensor” and “opentensor.” The team is identified. Two facts are reported as information: the July 2024 theft (technical incident, see autres_constats) and, in April 2026, the accusation by Covenant AI, a team leaving the network, which accused Jacob Steeves of unilateral control; the accusation is disputed, with no decision by a regulator or a court. The GoPlus scan does not apply to the native currency (see scan_securite for the bridged version).

Contract security scan

TAO is a native currency: the scan does not apply to it (rule A.8). The starting file lists contracts on Base, Robinhood Chain and Solana: these are bridged versions, whose bridge operator is not identified. GoPlus scan of the Base contract (0xf308…3d67, bridged version): 1,681 holders; top ten wallets excluding exchanges and contracts 17.9%; code published; no honeypot, no minting, no proxy, no freezing, no tax; liquidity not locked (not treated as a signal for a bridged version of a native token); contract owner: one address (powers not examined). No signal found. The Robinhood Chain and Solana contracts were not scanned (chains outside the tool's list).

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