UAE-Based Firm To Launch World’s First Islamic Cryptocurrency Exchange, Fully Sharia-Compliant
According to a recent report from Trade Arabia, the United Arab Emirates-based cryptocurrency startup Adab Solutions has just announced the launch of the world’s first cryptocurrency exchange for Muslims — appropriately named the First Islamic Crypto Exchange (FICE).
Specifically, this means that the cryptocurrency exchange will be fully compliant with relevant Sharia law. In effect, this opens up cryptocurrency trading for devout Islamic followers, who have previously been barred from cryptocurrency trading due to the lack of Sharia-compliant exchanges.
The report from Trade Arabia goes on to note that the exchange will feature an in-house Sharia Advisory Board (SAB) consisting of sovereign international Sharia experts, in order to guarantee that the exchange follows Islamic Sharia law at all times.
More specifically, the SAB will ensure that FICE adheres to ”the high moral requirements set forth by the Sharia community,” according to the Trade Arabia piece.
Notably, cryptocurrencies are actually especially suitable for use under Sharia law. This mainly stems from the fact that Sharia law condemns some traditional financial institutions and functions, such as the fractional reserve lending system which is widely used to support fiat currencies.
However cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are designed to have a finite supply, which entails that they are, in a Sharia point of view, more akin to traditional material Sharia commodities — such as salt or gold — than they are to fiat currencies.
Toshi Times has previously covered how the Islamic scholar Muhammad Abu Bakar — who anecdotally is said to have memorized the entire Qu’ran — declared that Bitcoin was deemed halal, and therefore Sharia-compliant, earlier this year.
The launch of FICE means that devout Muslims will have a reliable cryptocurrency trading platform, which it is moreover acceptable from a theological standpoint.
Prior to this, the world’s significant population of 1.8 billion Muslims have not had any cryptocurrency exchange to use if they wish to comply with Sharia law.
Although not all Muslims fervently follow Sharia law, FICE will undoubtedly open the cryptocurrency market to even the most devout Muslims. Moreover, FICE will be open to all users, regardless of their religion.
The company behind FICE, Adab Solutions, is planning to launch an ICO for the project in September. Any tokens purchased in the ICO will be used as utility keys in order to access the exchange’s services, and all FICE commissions will similarly be paid in so-called Adab tokens.
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