Arizona lawmaker proposes outsourcing crypto forfeitures to private agents

A new United States bill is in the works to allow the US President to issue letters to private personnel to enforce crypto seizures. According to reports, Arizona lawmaker David Schweikert introduced the bill, Scam Farms Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025, in August.

The bill proposes the use of state-sanctioned pirates to target cybercriminals wreaking havoc in the United States. Under the bill, these privately armed and equipped personnel contacted by the government will be authorized to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize property, detain, or punish cybercriminals that the president sees as a threat.

United States to pass new crypto seizure bill

Some of the threats highlighted in the bill include crypto theft, pig butchering scams, ransomware attacks, and accessing computers without authorization to gain personal or classified information. Others include identity theft, online password trafficking, and compromising computers with malicious code. “Criminal enterprises that employ cybercrimes and coerced labor present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the economic and national security of the United States,” the bill read.

The bill characterizes scams as “acts of war” carried out by individuals, organized criminals, and foreign governments against the United States as a revival of an 18th-century law that could have implications for the future of cybersecurity and asset seizure if passed. The United States recorded more than $142 million in crypto losses to hackers in July, with the total amount of digital assets stolen by criminal entities so far in 2025 exceeding $3 billion.

According to data from PeckShield, about $142 million was lost in 17 separate attacks across the crypto market, with CoinDCX suffering the most losses in all of the exploits. Aside from CoinDCX, which recorded a $44.2 million loss in July, GMX decentralized exchange also lost $40 million, although the hacker returned the stolen funds days later. Others in the top three include the $28 million lost by Big One exchange and the $12 million stolen from WOO X.

Seized assets could be used to boost the US crypto reserve

United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January establishing a Bitcoin and crypto reserve in the country, which could only accumulate digital assets obtained through forfeitures and other methods not tied to the budget. This means that stolen crypto seized by the United States law enforcement agencies could be forfeited to the government after the usual court proceedings.

In July, the United States filed a civil complaint to claim over 20 Bitcoin, which was valued at around $2.3 million, seized by the Dallas, Texas, division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during an operation carried out against the Chaos ransomware hacker group. The United States Department of Justice also seized $1 million in digital assets from the BlackSuit ransomware group during the same month.

This month, the DOJ has also authorized the seizure of $2.8 million in crypto from a wallet under the control of Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko, who was charged with targeting businesses and individuals with ransomware attacks. “As alleged in the unsealed warrants, the cryptocurrency and other assets are proceeds of (or were involved in laundering the proceeds of) ransomware activity,” the notice reads.

“Those assets were laundered in various ways, including by using the cryptocurrency mixing service ChipMixer, which was taken down in a coordinated international operation in 2023. Antropenko also laundered cryptocurrency by exchanging cryptocurrency for cash and depositing the cash in structured cash deposits,” the DOJ said. He was charged with computer fraud and abuse, conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

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