Zakat on Crypto: Is It Due, and How to Calculate It on BTC, ETH and USDT

Zakat on crypto is 2.5% of the market value of the crypto you own on your Zakat date, once your total zakatable wealth has been at or above the nisab for a lunar year. The Fiqh Council of North America, the Zakat Foundation of America, the UK's National Zakat Foundation and SeekersGuidance all say coins such as Bitcoin are zakatable once those conditions are met, and crypto bought to trade is zakatable in every published Zakat guidance we found.

This guide is written for readers in the United States and other English-speaking countries, so the examples are in US dollars. It explains how to value BTC, ETH and USDT, how crypto is added to your other savings, and the questions where scholars still answer differently. It is a summary of published guidance, not a ruling. For anything specific to you, ask a scholar or your mosque.

Is crypto zakatable? What published guidance says

The bodies that have written about Zakat on crypto mostly agree that coins you own count as wealth. They differ more on why, and on whether dealing in crypto is permissible in the first place.

Some treat Bitcoin and similar coins like money. The Fiqh Council of North America adopted a paper by Dr. Yasir Qadhi and Dr. Abdulbari Mashal in 2019 which says Bitcoin is to be treated under the same rulings as fiat currencies, and that Zakat is due on Bitcoin investments once a lunar year has passed and the amount is above the nisab. The Zakat Foundation of America likewise describes cryptocurrencies as money and therefore zakatable. A SeekersGuidance answer from January 2025 calls crypto a nominal currency (naqd istilahi) and says paying Zakat on it is obligatory.

Others look at what the crypto is for. The National Zakat Foundation's guidance, approved by Mufti Amjad in August 2023, says any coin or token bought to resell is always zakatable, that coins like Bitcoin are zakatable even when not bought to resell because they work as currencies, and that other tokens depend on what they represent. SeekersGuidance makes the same point about utility and governance tokens. The Selangor Fatwa Committee in Malaysia ruled in 2021 that Zakat on crypto and digital assets is obligatory, treating them as valuable property, assessed as trade goods or as money depending on how they are used.

Where scholars differ on crypto itself

Whether you should hold crypto at all is a separate question, and here the views are genuinely apart. We list them so you know the range, not to settle it.

• Permissible: the Fiqh Council of North America says buying and trading Bitcoin for investment is permissible.
• Conditionally permissible: the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America said in 2022 that dealing in crypto is closer to permissible than prohibited, on conditions including spot exchange, and that this is not an encouragement to invest. IslamQA has said dealing in crypto is permissible if the exchange is immediate and free of things like leverage and futures.
• Not permitted: Egypt's Dar al-Ifta issued a fatwa in December 2017 saying trading and dealing in Bitcoin is not permitted. Indonesia's Council of Ulama (MUI) ruled in 2021 that using crypto as currency is forbidden, while allowing assets with a clear underlying and benefit.
• Not yet decided: the OIC's International Islamic Fiqh Academy called in 2019 for further research on the issues that affect rulings on crypto-currencies, and the recommendations of its 2021 symposium on the subject were postponed.

How to value BTC, ETH and USDT for Zakat

The guidance that covers valuation agrees on the method: use the market value on your Zakat date, not what you paid. The Zakat Foundation of America says to check the nisab on the day your Zakat is due. The National Zakat Foundation says to convert the value into your local currency at the time you calculate, and Lembaga Zakat Selangor gives the formula as units held, times the price at the end of the lunar year (haul), times 2.5%.

• Pick your Zakat date and keep to the same date in the lunar calendar each year.
• List every holding: exchange accounts such as Coinbase or Kraken, app balances, and self-custody or hardware wallets. Coins split across several places are still one total.
• Note the number of units of each coin on that date, for example 0.05 BTC or 1.5 ETH.
• Look up each coin's US dollar price on that date from a reputable price source and multiply. Write down the source and time, so you can repeat the method next year.
• For USDT and other dollar stablecoins, use the same market-value rule. USDT is designed to track the dollar, so a balance usually counts at close to $1 per token.
• Ignore your purchase price, unrealized gains and losses, and future predictions. Only the value on the day counts.

Adding crypto to the nisab and your other savings

Crypto is not assessed on its own. You add its dollar value to your other zakatable wealth, such as cash, bank balances, gold and silver, and investments, then subtract debts that are due now. If the result is at or above the nisab and has been for a lunar year, Zakat is 2.5% of the whole amount, not just the part above the threshold.

The nisab is commonly given as 87.48 grams of gold or 612.36 grams of silver; some scholars use 85 and 595 grams. Many scholars advise the lower silver nisab for cash and mixed savings. Metal prices move daily, so we don't print a dollar figure here. Check the day's value on our Zakat page, and see Zakat on gold and What is Zakat? for how the thresholds work.

A worked example, using made-up prices to show the arithmetic only. On your Zakat date you hold 0.05 BTC at $100,000 ($5,000), 1.5 ETH at $4,000 ($6,000) and 2,000 USDT at $1 ($2,000). You also have $4,000 in the bank and a $1,000 bill due now. Your zakatable total is $5,000 + $6,000 + $2,000 + $4,000 - $1,000 = $16,000. If that is above the nisab, Zakat is $16,000 x 0.025 = $400.

Trading, long-term holding, staking and lost coins

Crypto bought to trade is zakatable in every published Zakat guidance we found, valued at market price on your Zakat date. For coins held long term, the National Zakat Foundation, the Fiqh Council of North America and the Zakat Foundation of America all treat Bitcoin-type coins as zakatable whether or not you mean to sell. For other tokens held long term, the National Zakat Foundation and SeekersGuidance say the answer depends on what the token is and does.

Some situations have little published guidance, and we found no ruling from a named body on them. Ask a scholar about:

• Staked or locked coins. Ownership is usually not in doubt, but access may be. Full ownership and free use are among the commonly listed conditions of Zakat, which is why locking periods raise questions.
• Staking rewards, lending interest and airdrops: whether and when they count, and whether a reward is acceptable to keep at all.
• Coins you can no longer reach, such as a lost wallet or a frozen exchange account.
• NFTs and project tokens, whose treatment the National Zakat Foundation and SeekersGuidance say depends on their function.

Paying Zakat in crypto

You can pay the amount you owe in money or in crypto. The National Zakat Foundation, which accepts Zakat in several coins, says you may give 2.5% of your crypto holdings or the equivalent in your own currency. Make the intention that the payment is Zakat when you give it.

If you want your Zakat to reach families in Gaza, you can send it in BTC, ETH or USDT through the Zakat button on our Zakat page or donate page. It is recorded as Zakat, and our running costs are not paid from it. Our payment processor keeps 1% plus the network fee, so you may want to send a little extra or ask your scholar how to treat it. Our guide to donating crypto to Gaza walks through the transfer, and donating crypto to Gaza from the US covers sending from American exchanges and apps.

For US readers, two practical notes. The IRS treats digital assets as property, so ask a tax adviser how giving crypto affects your return; our crypto donation tax guide summarizes what the IRS says. And gifts to Fight for Palestine are not tax-deductible in the US or anywhere else, because we don't publish a charity registration. More for American donors is on donate to Gaza from the USA.