Ondo Short-Term U.S. Government Bond Fund (OUSG) is currently considered not halal (non-compliant), per our own multi-standard crypto screen. Our full reasoning, the standards behind it and the facts it rests on are below.
The return, or the reserve behind the peg, is interest (riba). Every standard we screen on rejects this without exception.
Independently corroborated. 2 separate models read this coin and agreed on every fact the verdict turns on, though 1 minor field could not be established by all of them.
Not established: transparent governance. Our verdict does not assume anything about these — where they would change the answer, we say so rather than guessing.
Treated as currency, every riba ruling applies - and this token pays, or is backed by, interest.
Fiqh Council of North America, “Regarding the Islamic Ruling on Bitcoins” — default permissibility; treated as fiat currency, so all riba rulings and bai’ al-sarf apply
Riba is the clear evidence of prohibition this framework asks for.
Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America — Dr. Salah Al-Sawy (Secretary General) and Dr. Yasir Qadhi: transactions are permissible unless clear evidence prohibits them
Riba: the return, or the reserve behind the peg, is interest.
Securities Commission Malaysia, Shariah Advisory Council, 233rd-234th meetings, June-July 2020
Token layer: the return mechanism is interest.
Amanah Advisors, Crypto Shariah Screening Framework (Mufti Faraz Adam)
A lending-derived return is not a service fee, however it is presented.
Amanie Advisors (Dr. Daud Bakar) — Shariah certification of Ethereum staking; validation treated as a real service rendered to the network rather than a return on capital
A lending- or interest-derived return is riba regardless of what it is called.
AAOIFI Shariah Standards - riba and non-permissible income, applied to the token's return mechanism (no dedicated crypto standard exists)
Represents a claim on an identifiable off-chain asset rather than a free-floating digital token.
Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (crypto trading and investment impermissible); Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah (Egypt, 2018); Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi (Turkey, 2017)
The restrictive position above is shown but excluded from our own verdict: it rejects most digital assets including Bitcoin on gharar alone, so letting it decide would mark nearly everything non-compliant — which is neither our conclusion nor a defensible reading of the evidence. Hiding it would be worse.
This is our own screening verdict, reached by applying each named standard ourselves to the facts above, last established 2026-08-29. Research, not a fatwa — for a decision that binds you, ask a scholar you trust.
OUSG is a tokenized short-term US Treasury bills ETF, overseen and managed by Ondo Capital Management, a subsidiary of Ondo Finance. The significant majority of this portfolio is held in the iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (NASDAQ: SHV). There is also a small portion of USDC and USD for liquidity purposes. OUSG brings exposure to the ‘risk-free’ US Treasury rate on-chain for the first time. OUSG is an investment option that delivers a stable and predictable return while offering deep liquidity. Ondo funds such as OUSG only ever invest into ETFs backed by secure, stable, and liquid securities; these are the same assets in which trillions of dollars are invested every day by the world's largest institutions. OUSG was developed alongside two other fund tokens, OSTB and OHYG, by Ondo Finance, a software development firm in DeFi. Ondo launched in August 2021. Its first product was Ondo Vaults, a structured finance protocol on Ethereum. Later that year, Ondo launched Liquidity-as-a-Service (LaaS), facilitating over $210M in total liquidity provided. As DeFi yields compressed in 2022, the Ondo team decided to sunset Vaults and LaaS (together, "Ondo V1") to focus on next-generation protocols. Ondo V2, including Ondo’s tokenized funds, were announced by Nathan Allman in January 2023. Ondo funds subsequently opened to subscriptions soon after. What can OUSG be Used For? For investors who pass KYC and AML screening and sign subscription documents, OUSG tokens represent ownership in the fund. Investors can transfer these tokens between each other to effect changes in fund ownership. Investors can also use smart contracts to facilitate their financial arrangements such as by engaging in lending and trading activities with each other. The tokens themselves have transfer restrictions that will ensure they do not end up in the hands of anyone not appropriately qualified as an investor in the fund.
Background via CoinGecko — informational, not part of the verdict.
Peer movement computing — it will appear here on its own.
Plain-language summary of the evidence already on this page — the Sharia screen, structure, momentum, and order flow above. It explains the read; it doesn't make the call. Generated on demand (a live AI call), never run automatically.