Islamic Finance Principles Assessment
Riba — Does PowerSnookerCoin involve interest?
PowerSnookerCoin shows no evidence of interest-based mechanics in its design or disclosed operations. Its stated purpose is platform access and fan utility, not lending or yield generation. For Muslim investors, riba is not the primary concern here, though the absence of disclosed treasury practices leaves some questions open.
Assessment: Moderate Riba
Score: 57.9/100
Our methodology examines 10 criteria to evaluate how well PowerSnookerCoin avoids interest-based mechanisms.
No sources describe PSC's treasury composition, revenue model, or how funds raised from the 2018 ICO or ongoing token sales are held or deployed. There is no mention of interest-bearing bank deposits, bond holdings, or yield-generating treasury instruments. This absence of disclosure is a transparency gap rather than a positive indication of riba, but nothing in the available material suggests PSC generates income through interest. The lack of an explicit revenue model also means there is no described mechanism by which interest income could flow to token holders.
Power Snooker's core business model, as described across sources, is a modernised digital snooker platform monetised through token-gated content, merchandise, and event access rather than financial intermediation. There is no evidence of native lending, borrowing, margin facilities, or interest-bearing partnerships attached to PSC itself. The token functions as an access key to a sports entertainment product, not as a financial primitive. Absent any lending/borrowing feature or interest-based partnership disclosed in these sources, PSC's core business model does not itself introduce a riba concern.
Gharar — How much uncertainty does PowerSnookerCoin involve?
PowerSnookerCoin carries meaningful uncertainty stemming from inconsistent public disclosures rather than from the underlying business concept itself. A real, named team and a legitimate UK corporate registration reduce some ambiguity, but conflicting technical details and thin market data increase it substantially. Overall, gharar is the dominant Shariah consideration for this coin.
Assessment: Excessive Gharar (High Uncertainty)
Score: 41.4/100
Our methodology examines 15 criteria including team transparency, audit quality, and governance.
Unlike anonymous meme-token launches, PSC is linked to identifiable individuals — Chairman Costas Joannou, spokesperson Dean Christy, and Michael Papapavlou — plus a registered UK entity, POWERSNOOKERCOIN LIMITED, with a filing history at Companies House. A whitepaper exists and the project has a public history including appearances at the London Blockchain Summit. This named, traceable structure is a meaningful transparency positive. However, no governance mechanism (DAO or voting) is described anywhere, meaning control over the large uncirculated token supply and project direction appears to rest solely with the corporate team, without holder oversight.
No audit of the PowerSnookerCoin smart contract by any named firm was found in the available sources — the audit-related material retrieved concerns unrelated projects entirely. This must be stated plainly as an unaudited-contract gharar concern. Compounding this, sources disagree on the token's underlying chain (Solana versus Base ERC-20), and market data conflicts sharply, with one listing showing a multi-million-dollar market cap against near-zero volume while another shows a price of essentially zero. These contradictions, combined with only 1% of the 600 million supply reportedly circulating and no disclosed vesting schedule for the remainder, leave investors without a reliable basis to assess real risk or ownership dilution.
Maysir — Does PowerSnookerCoin involve gambling or speculation?
PowerSnookerCoin's core design is not a gambling mechanism; it is positioned as a utility token for a sports entertainment platform. What matters for maysir is the coin's own function, and third-party speculative trading in illiquid secondary markets does not itself convert a utility token into a gambling instrument. The primary caution here is speculative volatility from thin liquidity rather than an inherent maysir design.
Assessment: Maysir / Qimar (Gambling)
Score: 42.1/100
Our methodology examines 11 criteria to determine whether PowerSnookerCoin is a gambling instrument or a genuine economic tool.
PowerSnookerCoin is described consistently as granting access to Power Snooker's digital content, merchandise, fan activities, and event interaction — a genuine utility tied to a real sport-branded platform rather than a purely speculative vehicle. This functional design, access to a product or service in exchange for tokens, distinguishes PSC from instruments whose sole purpose is wagering on price movement. The presence of a real company, named executives, and event history supports the characterization of PSC as a utility-oriented token whose primary intended use is participation in the Power Snooker ecosystem, not gambling.
Against this genuine utility, however, sits a market environment marked by extremely low trading volume, conflicting price data, and a tiny circulating float relative to total supply — conditions that can invite speculative price behavior disconnected from actual platform usage. This speculative activity, where it occurs, is a feature of secondary-market conduct by traders rather than of PSC's own design, and per the guiding principle should not be held against the coin's Shariah status. On balance, PSC's stated purpose remains utility-driven, even as its low liquidity and dormant-looking market data warrant practical caution for investors.
The Full 27-Point Screening
1. Legitimacy (4 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Team Transparency | 70/100 | Named chairman, spokesperson and advisory team are cited, and the entity is a registered UK company with public filings. |
| Fraud & Scam Risk | 45/100 | No direct fraud allegations were found, but conflicting chain data and near-zero trading activity are unexplained anomalies that raise unresolved questions. |
| Use Case Legitimacy | 50/100 | Sources consistently describe a real use case (fan access, merchandise, events) tied to an actual sport, though evidence of active usage/adoption is thin. |
| Ethical Practices | 90/100 | The coin's stated purpose is tied to a snooker sports platform, an activity with no inherent Shariah prohibition. |
Summary: PowerSnookerCoin is linked to a named UK company and identifiable individuals tied to a real snooker sport brand, though inconsistent technical data and low market activity leave some questions unresolved.
2. Project Operations (9 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Core Protocol Business | 88/100 | The base protocol's business is a sports/entertainment utility platform, not a prohibited sector. |
| Transaction Fees | 40/100 (low evidence) | No information on transaction fee handling, burning, or distribution was found in these sources. |
| Treasury Assets | 40/100 (low evidence) | No treasury composition or holdings information could be established. |
| Revenue Model | 40/100 (low evidence) | No explicit revenue model beyond general token utility could be found in these sources. |
| Transparency | 40/100 | A whitepaper and website exist, but conflicting chain listings (Solana vs. Base ERC-20) suggest incomplete or inconsistent public disclosure. |
| Governance | 25/100 | No governance or DAO mechanism is described anywhere, suggesting control likely rests with the corporate entity rather than token holders. |
| Launch Fairness | 30/100 | Only 1% of the fixed 600M supply was released at launch via a liquidity pool, with the remainder's allocation and vesting undisclosed. |
| Token Distribution | 25/100 | The overwhelming majority of total supply was not in initial circulation, indicating a concentrated rather than broad distribution as far as sources show. |
| Speculation/Utility Ratio | 30/100 | Reported near-zero trading volume and price alongside a small circulating float suggest speculation/illiquidity outweighs demonstrated day-to-day utility use. |
Summary: The token functions as a stated utility token for platform access within the Power Snooker ecosystem, but fee handling, treasury details, and governance structures are undisclosed in available sources.
3. Financial Health (4 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Protocol Revenue | 75/100 | Nothing in the sources suggests interest-based revenue; the model appears to be utility-token sales/usage, though this is not explicitly confirmed. |
| Financial Status | 35/100 | Sources directly conflict on market cap, price, and rank, indicating unstable or unreliable market data for the token. |
| Interest Assessment | 80/100 (low evidence) | No lending, borrowing, or interest mechanism at the protocol level is mentioned in these sources. |
| Audit Quality | 10/100 | No audit report specific to PowerSnookerCoin's smart contract by any named firm could be found in these sources. |
Summary: Market data across sources is inconsistent and no independent smart-contract audit for PowerSnookerCoin could be located, leaving its financial standing and security unverified.
4. Token Economics (5 criteria)
| Criterion | Score | Analysis |
|---|
| Token Purpose | 55/100 | Multiple sources describe PSC explicitly as a utility token for platform access, merchandise, and fan engagement. |
| Governance Rights | N/A | No governance rights are described, but this is a neutral omission for a stated utility token rather than an inherent Shariah defect. |
| Rewards Distribution | 60/100 | No fixed or guaranteed reward mechanism is described; rewards appear to be usage-based access rather than yield, though details are sparse. |
| Speculation Controls | 25/100 | No anti-speculation design (vesting, transfer limits) is disclosed, and the very low initial float combined with a large fixed supply is a supply-overhang risk. |
| Asset Backing | 40/100 | The token is said to be backed by platform utility and brand association rather than any reserve or hard asset, and no formal backing mechanism is described. |
Summary: PSC is presented as a utility token with a fixed supply but a very small initial circulating float and no disclosed anti-speculation or governance mechanisms.
5. Staking Mechanism
PowerSnookerCoin has no native staking mechanism, so these five criteria are not applicable and are excluded from the score entirely rather than counted as zeros.
Overall Assessment: PowerSnookerCoin appears to be a genuine, sport-branded utility token rather than a meme coin, but gaps in audit evidence, distribution transparency, and consistent market data mean several Shariah-relevant questions remain unanswered rather than resolved.
Written by ThanvirFounder, Ex Director S&P Global Energy
Reviewed by Imam Omar SiddiqiShariah Scholar