Indonesian courts have convicted three individuals for terrorism financing using cryptocurrency transaction records as primary evidence. The convictions, secured in 2024 and 2025, demonstrate a new judicial acceptance of on-chain data. Authorities traced over $49,000 in USDT to an ISIS-linked campaign in Syria.
Indonesian courts have demonstrated that on-chain evidence is admissible and can anchor a terrorism financing prosecution. This marks a clear shift in how courts value blockchain data.
Authorities traced one defendant sending over $49,000 in USDT across 15 transactions from a local exchange to a foreign platform. The funds were later routed to an ISIS-linked terrorism fundraising campaign in Syria.
Indonesia’s financial intelligence team and its counterterrorism police unit, Densus 88, carried out the analysis. Their findings were presented and accepted as key evidence in each of the three cases.
Terrorism financing networks have preferred cryptocurrency to move money, as authorities were slow to treat it with traditional scrutiny. “Indonesian courts have demonstrated that cryptocurrency evidence — wallet addresses, transaction histories, on-chain flows — is not only admissible but can anchor a terrorism financing prosecution,” stated TRM Labs.
Similar patterns are emerging across Southeast Asia, where governments are investing in blockchain intelligence capabilities. Singapore and Malaysia are also building technical capacity to trace cryptocurrency flows.
In a related case, Cambodian and Chinese officials captured Li Xiong, a leader of the Huione Group, on April 1. His organization served scam centers in Cambodia that carried out “pig butchering” frauds to steal crypto globally.
Xiong was extradited to China to face fraud and money-laundering charges. His arrest followed the earlier detention of Chen Zhi, the head of the operating Prince Group.
TRM Labs reported in February that illicit entities received about $141 billion in stablecoins in 2025. This figure marked a five-year high for such transactions.
