Crypto Zakat Calculator

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam — an obligatory annual transfer of 2.5% of zakatable wealth from those who have above the nisab threshold to those who don't. It purifies wealth, redistributes it, and links the believer to the broader ummah.

For most of history, zakatable wealth meant cash, gold, silver, livestock, agricultural produce, and trade goods. Crypto is a recent addition to the conversation. The consensus among contemporary scholars is that halal crypto held for a lunar year (hawl) is zakatable on the same principles as cash — 2.5% on the market value at the zakat year date, provided the total halal wealth is above the nisab threshold.

This calculator does the arithmetic for you. Enter your halal crypto holdings, choose a nisab basis (silver or gold), and see the zakat owed. Adjust the silver or gold spot price to current market for binding precision.

Nisab is the minimum threshold of wealth above which zakat becomes obligatory. There are two historical bases — 595g of silver and 87.48g of gold. At current spot prices, the silver threshold is around $565 and the gold threshold is around $6,500. The gap is large because the silver-to-gold ratio has drifted historically.

Most contemporary scholars favour the silver nisab for cash-equivalent and crypto holdings — it's the lower threshold, which makes zakat obligatory for more people. This better fulfils the redistributive purpose of zakat. A minority position, particularly among Hanafi scholars on commercial-grade gold holdings, retains the gold threshold for gold itself.

The calculator defaults to silver and lets you adjust the spot prices in either direction. If your scholar advises gold nisab, switch the basis with one click.

The calculator includes only holdings you mark as halal in the zakat base. This matters because most scholars hold that gains from impermissible sources cannot be “cleansed” by paying zakat — they must instead be disposed of by giving to charity (without intention of reward) and the original principal can be retained for personal use only after the impermissible gains are removed.

Practically, this means: if you hold AAVE, SHIB, or any other coin that fails the AAOIFI screen, mark it non-halal in the calculator. Those positions are excluded from the zakat base. Separately, plan to dispose of them — close the position, take whatever gains have accrued, and give those gains to charity without intention of reward, then retain the principal (the dollar amount you originally put in) for personal use. Consult your scholar for case-specific guidance.

Going forward, sticking to a halal-only universe avoids this complexity entirely. Zakat becomes simple: 2.5% of the market value of halal holdings held for a full lunar year, due on your zakat year date.

Hawl is the lunar-year holding period. Zakat is due on wealth that has been held for at least one full lunar year — and the calculation is done on the value at the end of that year. Most users pick a fixed Hijri date (a common choice is 1 Ramadan) and calculate every year on that date.

For new positions added during the year, the strict interpretation is that they are zakatable only after they themselves complete a full lunar year. The simpler interpretation — and the one most users follow — is to fold all current halal holdings into the annual zakat calculation regardless of when they were acquired, on the grounds that the underlying wealth is fungible and the accounting simplification is reasonable.

Either interpretation is broadly accepted by scholars. The calculator implements the simpler approach. If you follow the strict interpretation, exclude positions acquired within the past lunar year.