WORLDTECHEx-CFTC Chair Calls White House Plan Letting Firms Hack Cybercriminals ‘Just About Right’
What happened
The former CFTC chairman, who proposed reviving letters of marque against crypto hackers in 2025, said on Unchained that the White House's narrower, government-run program is "a very mature, thoughtful document." Chris Giancarlo , the former CFTC chairman who proposed hiring private hackers to go after crypto thieves, said the narrower program the White House ordered in August is “a very mature, thoughtful document.”
Reading the memo, Giancarlo said on Unchained in an episode recorded Oct. From Letters of Marque to Vetted Contractors In a February 2025 op-ed written with Bits + Bips co-host Chris Perkins after the Lazarus Group’s $1.4 billion Bybit hack, Giancarlo called for letters of marque that would let American companies “retrieve funds controlled by OFAC-sanctioned governments, entities or individuals,” shielded from U.S.
He pitched the idea at the White House Crypto Summit the next month. 12 memo departs from that plan on both points.