Is NFT trading halal or haram? Creating images of living beings seems prohibited in Islam ?

Your question raises two genuinely separate issues that deserve honest individual answers. The first is the Islamic ruling on creating images of living beings. The second is whether NFTs are halal or haram as a financial and technology category. Both are important and both require specific engagement.

On the image creation concern you raised, you are correct that classical Islamic jurisprudence holds a specific position on the creation of images of living beings, particularly humans and animals. Scholars from all four major Sunni madhabs have historically cautioned against creating realistic depictions of living beings, citing prophetic traditions warning those who create such images. However scholars have also distinguished between different types of images and different contexts. Shadow images, non-realistic stylized depictions, images for educational or necessary purposes, and abstract representations have all been assessed differently by different scholars. This is a genuine area of scholarly discussion rather than a single unanimous ruling applicable to all forms of digital art.

What this means practically for NFT artwork is that the specific content of an NFT matters enormously. A photorealistic NFT portrait of a human being raises the classical image creation concern. An abstract geometric artwork NFT, a landscape NFT, a calligraphic NFT, or a gaming item NFT with no living being depicted does not raise this concern at all. The content question requires individual assessment of each specific NFT rather than a categorical ruling on all NFT art.

On whether NFTs are halal or haram as a category, the answer is that NFTs are not categorically halal or haram. They are a technology for recording unique ownership on a blockchain and the permissibility depends entirely on what specific NFT you are discussing, what it represents, and what your purpose is in engaging with it.

CoinStudy has published a comprehensive blog specifically addressing this question in full detail covering all five NFT categories with specific compliance rulings for each. The five categories are real-world asset NFTs which are generally permissible when the underlying asset is halal, utility NFTs for permissible services which are conditionally permissible, digital art and collectible NFTs which require honest self-assessment of intent and fall in the Doubtful category by default, purely speculative NFT flipping which is Haram under the Maysir principle, and NFTs with prohibited content or interest-bearing yield mechanisms which are Haram.

The most important practical guidance for you personally is the honesty test CoinStudy applies to all NFT assessment. Ask yourself honestly whether you would still purchase a specific NFT if the price remained exactly the same and never increased. If yes because you genuinely value the art, the gaming utility, or the real-world asset it represents, the purchase is closer to permissible commerce. If no because your only purpose is selling to a higher buyer, the activity is speculative Maysir regardless of what the NFT depicts.

For a complete and detailed analysis of every NFT category with specific Islamic finance rulings, the image creation concern in digital art, the 2026 SEC and CFTC classification of NFTs as digital collectibles, and the emerging halal NFT applications including tokenized sukuk certificates, please read CoinStudy's full NFT blog at coinstudy.co/blog/is-nft-halal-or-haram. The blog covers every point you have raised and more in complete detail.