Arizona lawmaker David Schweikert launched “The Rip-off Farms Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025” in August, which proposes neo-privateers — state-sanctioned pirates — to fight cybercriminals engaged in threats towards the USA.
The bill authorizes the US president to issue letters of marque to “privately armed and outfitted individuals” contracted by the federal government to “make use of all means fairly needed” to grab property and detain or “punish” cybercriminals deemed a risk by the president.
These threats embody crypto theft, pig butchering scams, ransomware assaults, id theft, accessing computer systems with out authorization to collect delicate private or categorised info, on-line password trafficking, and compromising computer systems with malicious code. The invoice learn:
“Legal enterprises that make use of cybercrimes and coerced labor current an uncommon and extraordinary risk to the financial and nationwide safety of the USA.”
The invoice characterised the scams as “acts of battle” perpetrated by people, organized criminals, and international governments towards the US and is a revival of an 18th-century regulation that might have implications for the way forward for cybersecurity and asset seizure if handed.
Associated: Crypto crime unit with $250M in seizures expands with Binance
US might funnel seized belongings into Bitcoin reserve and nationwide crypto stockpile
Over $142 million in crypto was lost to hackers in July, and the full quantity of crypto stolen to this point in 2025 exceeds $3 billion. Stolen crypto seized by US regulation enforcement officers in investigations might later be forfeited to the federal government in courtroom proceedings.
US President Donald Trump signed an government order in January establishing a Bitcoin and crypto reserve, which might solely accumulate crypto by budget-neutral methods or asset forfeiture.
In July, the US federal authorities filed a civil criticism to claim over 20 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at over $2.3 million, seized by the Dallas, Texas, division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) throughout an operation towards the Chaos ransomware hacker group.
The US Division of Justice (DOJ) additionally seized $1 million in crypto from the BlackSuit ransomware group throughout the identical month.
In August, the DOJ authorized the seizure of $2.8 million in crypto from a pockets managed by Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko, who was charged with focusing on people and companies with ransomware assaults.
Journal: Inside a 30,000 phone bot farm stealing crypto airdrops from real users
