The DeFi platform sees strong interest in halal-approved crypto products

Australian-based crypto platform Marhaba DeFi says there has been strong uptake of Halal-approved cryptocurrency products on the platform, with the aim of releasing a series of new products that are in line with Islamic law by the end of 2022.

Launched in 2020, the platform is focused on following the rules of “Islamic finance” which refers to how businesses and individuals raise capital in accordance with Sharia, or Islamic law.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Marhaba DeFi founder and CEO Naquib Mohammed said that active users of their Sahal Wallet have grown to around 40,000 since launch, saying:

“People need a platform where they can trust every token they interact with, so we don’t have to go hunting for different platforms and use different [Islamic] scholars or experts asking “can I invest in this protocol, this token, this strategy?”

“You just download a wallet and it will give you everything that is halal in the crypto ecosystem,” he adds.

Marhabawhich means “welcome” in Arabic, has also released four more Islamic law-aligned crypto products this year, which Mohammed says will be an “end-to-end halal ecosystem” for those excluded from the market due to a lack of Sharia compliance .

The first is TijarX, which he says is the first halal decentralized exchange (DEX) for commodity-backed tokens, a halal DeFi staking solution, a liquidity fundraising platform and a new version of the existing halal nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace:

“The fundamental characteristic of the blockchain is its transparency, it is immutable, so it makes perfect sense to bring Islamic finance into the blockchain. Because of this transparency, blockchain is the perfect puzzle piece to fit this gap.”

The first cryptocurrencies to launch this month on the TijarX DEX will be tokenized silver and gold backed by real and audited bullion reserves. Mohammed says there is more to add to the platform, such as tokenized wheat, barley, soy and cocoa.

Mohammed says that discussions are already underway, but nothing is added to the platform without a vetting process that ensures not only that the provider has enough liquidity to handle the volume, but also complies with Islamic laws:

“If the business is not Sharia-compliant, if it’s not halal, we can’t list it on the platform. It’s all a very time-consuming and intensive process, but we’re perfectly fine.”

It is this process that meant their MIRO deployment platform took eight months to build “due to the difficulty of dealing with Sharia compliance in space”.

The effort platform is based on the Islamic concept Ju’ala, which Mohammed describes as “reward for working”. Users earn a “commission”, part of a share of the platform’s revenue, for doing work within the platform such as participating in governance and voting on proposals.

Marhaba’s liquidity harvester works with a separate Islamic financial profit and loss sharing scheme called Mudarabah, where one party provides the capital while the other provides labour, and both share in profits and losses.

Mohammed explains that charging or earning interest in Islam is considered exploitative, and the liquidity harvester will be a “game changer” for those barred from accepting interest due to their faith, as they will gain exposure to a similar style of product.

Related: NFT and Islamic education: A new frontier for teaching religion?

Marhaba also provides solutions for Islamic businesses using NFTs, while the second version of the NFT marketplace will be tailored for businesses, Mohammed revealed that it has already partnered with five organizations that will use NFTs.

In April, Marhaba issued the first NFT Halal certification, and Mohammed expressed that this was an area he personally wants to ensure finds ease of use and adoption, as it will give consumers greater transparency about the validity of a company’s Halal certification:

“This NFT certification is a way to authorize, authenticate and ensure that the certification is valid, and has not expired, that the business has renewed the certification.”

“We were greatly appreciated in the community for that,” he added.

TijarX is set to go live on September 27, with the revamped NFT market set for late October. MIRO and Liquidity Harvester are scheduled for the first weeks of November and December respectively.