The short answer
A forensic exam of a phone or computer does not magically find money— it tells you where to look. What it surfaces are indicators: traces that a spouse may hold assets they have not disclosed, which then justify targeted discovery and subpoenas. Whether any particular indicator is on a given device depends entirely on the device and the person's own habits. Used honestly, an exam turns a hunch into specific, subpoena-able leads. This is informational, not legal advice.
The indicators an exam can surface
Depending on how the person used the device, an examiner may find:
- Cryptocurrency wallet apps— or, more tellingly, a note, photo, or document that looks like a 12- to 24-word recovery (seed) phrase, which controls a wallet.
- Authenticator appswith entries tied to specific exchanges — a sign an account exists even if the exchange app itself is gone.
- Exchange or brokerage emails— statements, marketing, or login alerts that name an institution to subpoena.
- Browser history and bookmarks pointing at trading platforms or account portals.
- Peer-to-peer payment appsas a category — activity in this kind of app can reveal transfers worth following, though it varies by person and is best treated as a lead to confirm, not a conclusion.
- Deleted financial records— documents or messages someone tried to remove, which an exam can sometimes recover.
The honest framing throughout: these maybe present. None is guaranteed, and an absence proves nothing on its own. The exam's job is to convert “I think there's more” into a defensible list of places to send discovery.
From indicator to admissible proof
An indicator is a starting point, not the finish line. A seed-phrase photo tells you a wallet likely exists; tracing the on-chain assets and tying them to your spouse is the next, separate step, and the institutional records you subpoena are what ultimately prove the holding. The device exam's value is in directing that work efficiently, so you are not subpoenaing blind.
Doing it cleanly
Two cautions. First, the device has to be examined lawfully and defensibly— on a device your client owns or the court has authorized, with a clean chain of custody — or the findings are worth nothing and may backfire. Second, preserve early: a party who senses scrutiny can wipe a phone, which is its own problem (see the family-law litigation-hold template). When a hidden-asset question is real, our digital forensics for divorce and digital forensics for attorneys pages explain how an exam is scoped to produce leads you can actually use.
Sources
- HKA, How Crypto Forensics Uncovers Hidden Assets: Digital Wallet Evidence. https://www.hka.com/article/crypto-forensics-investigations-digital-wallet-evidence/
- Hudson Intelligence, Cryptocurrency in Divorce: Finding Hidden Digital Assets. https://www.fraudinvestigation.net/cryptocurrency-divorce
- Carney Forensics, Crypto Forensics: Tracing Cryptocurrency Assets. https://www.carneyforensics.com/digital-forensics-services/crypto-forensics/
