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Is USD Coin (USDC) halal?

Questionable

No condition fails, but 3 points remain to be verified or fall under a tolerated case.

Verdict calculated by Halal Bourse's published rules from an investigation of primary sources (project documentation, registers, decisions), conducted on 10/05/2026 and not reviewed by a human.

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The asset

stablecoin Issuer: Circle Internet Group (listed in New York under CRCL); European issuer: Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS (France, electronic money institution licensed by the ACPR).

Digital token pegged to the US dollar at 1 USDC to 1 USD, backed according to the issuer by cash and cash equivalents. About 73.96 billion tokens are in circulation on October 5, 2026 according to CoinGecko, including 45.49 billion on Ethereum according to DefiLlama.

Why this verdict

  1. Permissible purpose : met. USDC is used to settle payments and hold dollars on many blockchains; Circle reports $14.8 trillion in on-chain transaction volume in the second quarter of 2026. No main purpose of gambling, interest-bearing lending or impermissible content is found for the token itself (the issuer's investment of the reserves is addressed under c2).
    • « Built for rapid global payments and 24/7 financial markets, USDC is a regulated digital currency you can redeem 1:1 for US dollars. » Circle (page USDC) (2026-10-05)
    • « USDC onchain transaction volume in Q2'26 of $14.8 trillion grew 151% year-over-year » Circle (second quarter 2026 press release) (2026-08-05)
  2. No riba : to be verified or tolerated case. The USDC holder receives no yield under the terms of use, but the issuer invests the reserves in Treasury bills, reverse repurchase agreements and deposits and keeps the proceeds: reserve income is $668 million of $701 million in total revenue in the second quarter of 2026 (95.3%, share calculated from the two amounts).
    • « USDC does not itself generate any interest or return for holders of USDC » Circle (USDC terms of use) (2026-10-05)
    • « Treasuries and overnight reverse repurchase agreements (Overnight Reverse Treasury Repo) held as reserves for the benefit of USDC holders » Circle (transparency page) (2026-10-05)
  3. No gambling : met. The spot purchase is of a token that the issuer undertakes to redeem at 1 USD per USDC, transferable on a public blockchain (9,010,232 holder addresses on Ethereum on October 5, 2026) and quoted at 0.9999 USD; it is not a bet on a price difference without purchase or delivery.
  4. No excessive gharar : met. Rights, redemption rules and reserves are documented (terms of use, MiCA redemption policy); according to the transparency page, a Big Four firm provides monthly assurance that the reserves exceed the circulation, and Deloitte has audited Circle's financial statements since 2022. The dollar breakdown of the reserves as of September 24, 2026 and the attestation reports could not be read (page loaded by script).
    • « USDC is fully backed by an equivalent amount of U.S. Dollar-denominated assets held by Circle with U.S. regulated financial institutions in segregated accounts » Circle (USDC terms of use) (2026-10-05)
    • « a Big Four accounting firm provides monthly third-party assurance that the value of USDC reserves are greater than the amount of USDC in circulation » Circle (transparency page) (2026-10-05)
  5. Real ownership : met. USDC can be transferred to any Ethereum address, but the issuer can block addresses: the “blacklist” function exists in the contract and the terms of use provide for freezing tokens associated with activity it judges illegal.
    • « function blacklist(address _account) external onlyBlacklister » Etherscan (USDC contract code) (2026-10-05)
    • « Circle reserves the right to “block” certain USDC addresses and, if such addresses are Circle custodied addresses, freeze associated USDC » Circle (USDC terms of use) (2026-10-05)
  6. No fraud or manipulation : to be verified or tolerated case. No sanction of the issuer and no deception of buyers was found; two points remain to be verified: USDC fell below 0.87 USD in March 2023 when Circle disclosed $3.3 billion of reserves at Silicon Valley Bank, and, in July 2026, a secondary source reports a criminal complaint (misdemeanor) by Wisconsin prosecutors against Circle for refusing to execute a warrant to reissue stolen tokens.
    • « The company revealed it has nearly 8% of its $40 billion in reserves tied up at the collapsed lender Silicon Valley Bank. » CNBC (2023-03-11)
    • « USDC is designed to trade at $1, but it fell below 87 cents on Saturday, according to data from CoinDesk. » CNBC (2023-03-11)
  7. Cas toléré : to be verified or tolerated case. l'émetteur place les réserves à intérêt sans rien verser au détenteur

Tolerance case

T3. Stablecoin whose issuer invests the reserves in Treasury bills, reverse repurchase agreements and bank deposits, receives the proceeds (reserve income of $668 million out of $701 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2026) and pays nothing to the holder. The share of this interest in revenue is 95.3% (calculated from the two amounts); the impermissible share as a percentage is not published. The 2025 US law (GENIUS Act) prohibits the issuer from paying interest or yield to the holder.

Contract security scan

GoPlus security scan of the USDC contract on Ethereum: 9,233,690 holders; top ten wallets excluding platforms and contracts 10.2%; code published; token on GoPlus's trust list. Signals found: Contract upgradeable through a proxy: the code can change after the fact (is_proxy). Reading: Issuer identified and regulated (Circle): the upgradeable contract is a regulated-issuer practice, not a rug pull signal under rule A.8.

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