Onchain evidence played a key role in the conviction of three people for terrorism financing in Indonesia in 2024 and 2025, reflecting a marked shift in the way courts assess onchain evidence.
“Indonesian courts have shown that cryptocurrency evidence – wallet addresses, transaction histories, on-chain flows – is not only admissible, but can form the basis of terrorism financing charges,” TRM he said in a statement on Sunday.
TRM said terrorism financing networks are favoring cryptocurrency as their preferred money transfer mechanism as authorities and regulators are ponderous to treat it with the same level of scrutiny as established fiat channels, but noted that this is now changing.
Indonesian authorities traced one of the defendants to sending more than $49,000 (USDT) in 15 transactions from a local exchange to a foreign platform, and the funds were then transferred to a fundraising campaign for ISIS-linked terrorism in Syria, according to a blockchain company.
Indonesia’s financial intelligence team and its anti-terrorism police unit Densus 88 conducted the analysis and presented the findings to Indonesian courts, which considered the blockchain data as key evidence in each of the three cases.
Indonesia is not the only country in Southeast Asia using blockchain analytics to catch criminals, says TRM.
“Similar patterns are emerging across Southeast Asia, where governments are investing in blockchain intelligence capabilities and strengthening collaboration between the public and private sectors to address the risks of illicit financing.”
TRM Labs said financial intelligence units and law enforcement agencies in Singapore and Malaysia are also building technical capabilities to track cryptocurrency flows.
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On April 1, Cambodian and Chinese officials captured Li Xiong, the leader of the Huione Group, an organization that operated fraud centers in Cambodia that carried out “pig butchering” scams and other investment schemes designed to steal cryptocurrencies from victims around the world.
Xiong was extradited to China, where he faces fraud and money laundering charges.
His extradition came three months after the arrest of Chen Zhi, head of Prince Group, which runs the Huione Group.
In February, TRM reported that illicit actors received approximately $141 billion worth of stablecoins in 2025, a five-year high.
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