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Is Zcash (ZEC) 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.

Open the evidence file

The asset

Native currency of the Zcash network (proof of work), launched on October 28, 2016 from Bitcoin's code; public or “shielded” transactions (confidential, zk-SNARK) Issuer: No issuer: open network; historical development by the Electric Coin Company (ECC, founded by Zooko Wilcox, owned by the Bootstrap association), whose team left in January 2026, and by the Zcash Foundation.

ZEC is used to pay and transfer value, with optional privacy. Supply is capped at 21 million ZEC. As of October 6, 2026 (23:50 UTC), CoinGecko shows 16.97 million ZEC in circulation, a price of €1,212.91 and a market capitalization of €20.56 billion (rank 10).

Why this verdict

  1. Permissible purpose : met. ZEC is presented as a digital currency for payment and reserve, with described uses (merchant payments, donations, gift cards); a U.S. spot fund holds it. No gambling, interest-bearing lending or impermissible content purpose is found; optional privacy is addressed in c6 and in autres_constats.
    • « Zcash is a digital currency — and a store of value — that keeps all your financial information private and in your control. » Zcash (site z.cash) (2026-10-07)
    • « This short walkthrough covers practical ways to use Zcash in the real world — paying merchants directly, donating to privacy-focused causes » Zcash (site z.cash) (2026-10-07)
  2. No riba : met. Holding pays no yield: 80% of new ZEC goes to miners, 20% to development funds, and holding confers no governance right. No native lending or staking mechanism appears in the sources read.
  3. No gambling : met. A spot purchase is of an asset recorded on a public ledger (or protected by zero-knowledge proofs) and transferable directly between users; it is not a contract on a price difference.
  4. No excessive gharar : met. The issuance rules are published: cap of 21 million ZEC, halvings, 10% of supply allocated by default to ECC's founders, employees, advisors and investors (“Founders' Reward”, 2016-2020), then a development fund of 20% of the block reward (until November 2024) and, since then, 20% of which a share goes to Zcash Foundation grants. The entities that receive these funds are identified; no anonymous party controlling issuance, a treasury or keys appears in the sources read.
    • « Yes. Zcash's max supply is 21M, so you can be confident your holdings will not get inflated away like traditional fiat currencies. » Zcash (site z.cash) (2026-10-07)
    • « The result was that 10% of ZEC's fully diluted supply was automatically distributed to holders who themselves were not responsible for its mining. » Grayscale Zcash Trust (10-K, SEC) (2026-03-12)
  5. Real ownership : met. ZEC is held and transferred without an intermediary, in a personal wallet. The withdrawal conditions of purchase platforms were not studied; several have delisted ZEC (c6).
    • « In order to own, transfer or use ZEC directly on the Zcash Network, as opposed to through an intermediary, such as a custodian » Grayscale Zcash Trust (10-K, SEC) (2026-03-12)
  6. No fraud or manipulation : met. No sanction or deception of buyers was found; AMF blacklist: no result. ZEC was delisted from several platforms (including Kraken in India and the Emirates in 2026), which the fund's SEC filing attributes to privacy; European Regulation 2024/1624 will prohibit regulated providers from handling enhanced-anonymity tokens starting July 10, 2027: these are platform decisions and an access rule, not a sanction against the project (retraits_de_cotation). Concentration: the top 100 unshielded wallets hold about 46% of supply. Halal Bourse rule (October 6, 2026): information, not established fraud; condition considered met.
  7. Réseau ouvert et généraliste : met. un outil neutre

Tolerance case

T1. ZEC is the native currency of an open network, with no owning entity or issuer collecting revenue (T2 and T3 not applicable). T1 retained with reservation: it is a value-transfer network, without smart contracts, whose distinctive feature is optional privacy; its “general-purpose” character is debatable. Decision left to the Halal Bourse team (T1 does not affect the verdict).

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