Islamic Finance Principles Assessment
Riba — Does Planet IX involve interest?
Planet IX does not operate a lending or borrowing market, and its base protocol generates no interest income. The one native yield feature — AIX staking — advertises fixed-looking APY tied to lock duration rather than a disclosed profit-share, which warrants caution but is not conclusively interest in the classical sense. Muslim investors should treat the staking feature, not the core token or game economy, as the area needing scrutiny.
Assessment: Moderate Riba
Score: 51.7/100
Our methodology examines 10 criteria to evaluate how well Planet IX avoids interest-based mechanisms.
Planet IX's revenue appears to come from in-game NFT sales and subscription-style "Tile Contract" payments processed via Superfluid, not from interest-bearing treasury instruments or lending activity. No treasury composition was disclosed in available sources, so it cannot be confirmed whether idle funds are held in interest-generating accounts. The absence of any described lending/borrowing function at the protocol level is a positive sign: the core economy is built on NFT sales, gameplay progression, and burn mechanics rather than debt-based instruments, which keeps the base protocol's revenue model free of overt riba exposure.
AIX staking via ix.foundation advertises APY of roughly 13.64%-34.19% depending on lock length (1/3/6/12 months), mirroring the earlier IXT model funded from a fixed token-allocation pool rather than trading fees or profit-sharing. Because these rates are quoted as fixed targets tied purely to lock duration rather than performance outcomes, the structure reads closer to interest-like fixed return than a genuine profit-and-loss-sharing arrangement. This is a legitimate concern: investors seeking strict riba avoidance should treat the staking feature with caution, even though the underlying token and game utility are unrelated to interest.
Gharar — How much uncertainty does Planet IX involve?
Planet IX carries a moderate level of uncertainty, reduced by a named, traceable team and a multi-year operating history, but increased by missing audits, undisclosed treasury details, and thin liquidity on Base. The overall picture is one of a real, functioning project whose disclosure gaps have not yet been closed. Investors should weigh this uncertainty seriously rather than dismiss it.
Assessment: Excessive Gharar (High Uncertainty)
Score: 47.9/100
Our methodology examines 15 criteria including team transparency, audit quality, and governance.
The team is publicly named and verifiable — CEO Karl Blomsterwall, co-founder Felix Bengtsson, and Lukas Alexandersson operate under Nibiru Software/Planet IX Foundation in Stockholm, with public LinkedIn profiles. This transparency, combined with over a million registered users and 12 million minted NFTs, supports genuine legitimacy rather than an anonymous or fly-by-night operation. However, governance is not decentralised; decision-making sits with the Foundation/Nibiru Software, and open-source status of the AIX contracts on Base is not explicitly confirmed, leaving a gap in verifiable transparency around code and control.
No security audit specific to the AIX token or its Base smart contracts was found in available sources; the only Halborn report identified relates to a different, unrelated project ("Planet Finance Green"), and a separate Halborn report tied to "Substance Exchange" could not be confirmed as connected to Planet IX. This is a genuine gharar concern that should be named plainly: an unaudited contract set carries elevated technical and financial risk regardless of the project's operating history. A public GitBook whitepaper documents tokenomics and staking mechanics, but precise reward-calculation formulas and risk disclosures for staking are not detailed.
Maysir — Does Planet IX involve gambling or speculation?
Planet IX is a play-to-earn NFT strategy game rather than a chance-based gambling product, with rewards tied to gameplay decisions, land development, and progression. Speculative behavior exists in the token's thin secondary market, but this reflects trader conduct rather than the protocol's design. On balance the game mechanics themselves do not constitute maysir.
Assessment: Moderate Maysir (High Risk)
Score: 57.5/100
Our methodology examines 11 criteria to determine whether Planet IX is a gambling instrument or a genuine economic tool.
Planet IX's core utility is a Web3 strategy game where players acquire, develop, and manage virtual land parcels (PIX), territories, and facilities, using AIX for transactions, subscriptions, and progression. Rewards stem from strategic gameplay decisions and resource management rather than random chance or wagering against other users. Burn mechanisms for consumptive utilities and lock mechanisms for subscriptions tie token demand to actual usage within the game economy. This productive, decision-driven structure — with over a million registered users and sustained transaction volume on Polygon — distinguishes Planet IX from a purely speculative or chance-based instrument.
Against this genuine utility, however, AIX's trading behavior on Base shows signs of speculative thinness: CoinGecko reports roughly $393 in 24-hour volume at a price near $0.01058, and other sources describe the token as effectively untraded on its new chain. Vesting schedules (24-48 months) and staking lock-ups are explicitly designed to curb short-term flipping, which is a mitigating factor. Still, low liquidity combined with sizeable team/advisor allocations (16.7% and 8.35%) creates conditions where price movements may be driven more by thin-market speculation than organic game-economy demand, a factor investors should weigh carefully rather than the game mechanics themselves.
The Full 27-Point Screening
1. Legitimacy (4 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Team Transparency | 65/100 | Team members are named with LinkedIn profiles and a traceable Stockholm base, though founding-date details are inconsistent across sources. |
| Fraud & Scam Risk | 60/100 | No fraud, hack, or rug-pull evidence tied specifically to Planet IX/AIX was found, but thin market liquidity limits confidence in this absence. |
| Use Case Legitimacy | 75/100 | The project has a documented multi-year gaming/NFT ecosystem with real user and transaction figures, indicating genuine utility rather than pure hype. |
| Ethical Practices | 78/100 | The game's own design (land restoration, strategy gameplay, NFT economy) does not target a haram industry. |
Summary: Planet IX has a named, traceable founding team and a multi-year operating history as a real NFT/gaming project, with no fraud evidence found specific to this coin in the retrieved sources.
2. Project Operations (9 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Core Protocol Business | 78/100 | The base protocol is a Web3 strategy game/NFT platform, a sector with no inherent Shariah prohibition. |
| Transaction Fees | 65/100 | Fees appear to be handled via burn and lock mechanisms for utilities/subscriptions rather than extractive interest-like fees, though full fee schedules are not disclosed. |
| Treasury Assets | 50/100 (low evidence) | Treasury asset composition (e.g., whether interest-bearing instruments are held) is not disclosed in these sources. |
| Revenue Model | 62/100 | Revenue appears tied to NFT sales and subscription payments rather than lending/interest, but no explicit protocol revenue breakdown was found. |
| Transparency | 58/100 | A public whitepaper and tokenomics pages exist, but open-source status of the Base smart contracts is not explicitly confirmed. |
| Governance | 35/100 | No token-holder governance or DAO structure is described; control appears centralised with the founding team/Foundation. |
| Launch Fairness | 45/100 | Allocation data shows significant team, advisor, and investor tranches with vesting, indicating this was not a fully fair/no-premine launch. |
| Token Distribution | 55/100 | Distribution spans many categories (P2E, staking, airdrops, ecosystem, liquidity) but retains sizeable insider allocations. |
| Speculation/Utility Ratio | 55/100 | The token is designed around gameplay utility, but current thin trading volume suggests speculative market behavior may dominate actual usage. |
Summary: The base protocol is a legitimate NFT land-strategy game migrating from Polygon to Base, with disclosed but insider-weighted token allocations and unclear governance decentralisation.
3. Financial Health (4 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Protocol Revenue | 72/100 | No lending/interest-based revenue stream is described for the protocol. |
| Financial Status | 35/100 | Recent market data shows very low trading volume, indicating an unstable, illiquid market for the token. |
| Interest Assessment | 40/100 | The protocol offers native staking with an advertised fixed-looking APY range, which raises a riba-adjacent concern despite being framed as a reward rather than a loan. |
| Audit Quality | 15/100 | No security audit specific to the AIX token or its Base contracts could be identified; unrelated audits for a different "Planet Finance" project were found instead. |
Summary: The project shows thin recent trading liquidity and offers native staking yield, but no project-specific smart contract audit could be found in these sources.
4. Token Economics (5 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Token Purpose | 72/100 | AIX functions as an in-game utility/transactional token integrated with gameplay rather than a purely speculative meme asset. |
| Governance Rights | N/A | No governance rights for AIX holders are described, and the token is not positioned as a governance instrument. |
| Rewards Distribution | 45/100 | Rewards mix an advertised APY-style staking range with variable, gameplay-linked P2E rewards, blending fixed and performance-based elements. |
| Speculation Controls | 55/100 | Vesting schedules and multi-month staking lock-ups are explicitly used to reduce short-term speculative flipping. |
| Asset Backing | 40/100 | The token is backed only by in-game utility and burn/lock mechanics, with no disclosed hard-asset or treasury backing. |
Summary: AIX is a gameplay utility token with vesting and lock-up-based anti-speculation features, though it lacks disclosed governance rights or hard-asset backing.
5. Staking Mechanism (5 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Mechanism Type | 50/100 | Staking is offered through the ix.foundation platform with selectable durations, but it is unclear whether the mechanism is custodial or fully non-custodial. |
| Islamic Contract Classification | 30/100 | The advertised fixed APY ranges for locking tokens resemble a Qard-with-increment structure rather than a clean profit-sharing (Mudarabah/Wakalah) arrangement, and no Islamic classification is offered. |
| Rewards Structure | 35/100 | Staking rewards are presented as APY figures tied to lock length rather than clearly variable returns from real protocol activity. |
| Documentation | 60/100 | Lock durations and general reward tiers are documented, but detailed risk disclosures and reward-calculation mechanics are not fully explained. |
| Shariah Alignment | 35/100 | The fixed-appearing APY staking reward leaves an unresolved core question about its resemblance to interest-bearing returns. |
Summary: Native staking exists with duration-based APY rewards funded from a fixed allocation pool, raising an unresolved question about its resemblance to fixed-interest returns rather than clean profit-sharing.
Overall Assessment: Planet IX/AIX appears to be a genuine, longstanding gaming project with reasonable transparency on team and tokenomics, but unaudited Base contracts, thin market liquidity, and a fixed-looking staking yield structure leave meaningful open questions for a Shariah-compliance determination.
Written by ThanvirFounder, Ex Director S&P Global Energy
Reviewed by Imam Omar SiddiqiShariah Scholar