diff --git a/crt/CMakeLists.txt b/crt/CMakeLists.txt
index a2aa142..2484781 100644
--- a/crt/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/crt/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -29,10 +29,14 @@ include(CTest)
 # On Unix we use S2N for TLS and AWS-LC crypto.
 # (On Windows and Apple we use the default OS libraries)
 if(UNIX AND NOT APPLE)
-    set(DISABLE_GO ON CACHE BOOL "Build without using Go, we don't want the extra dependency")
-    set(DISABLE_PERL ON CACHE BOOL "Build without using Perl, we don't want the extra dependency")
-    set(BUILD_LIBSSL OFF CACHE BOOL "Don't need libssl, only need libcrypto")
-    add_subdirectory(aws-lc)
+    option(USE_OPENSSL "Set this if you want to use your system's OpenSSL compatible libcrypto" OFF)
+
+    if(NOT USE_OPENSSL)
+        set(DISABLE_GO ON CACHE BOOL "Build without using Go, we don't want the extra dependency")
+        set(DISABLE_PERL ON CACHE BOOL "Build without using Perl, we don't want the extra dependency")
+        set(BUILD_LIBSSL OFF CACHE BOOL "Don't need libssl, only need libcrypto")
+        add_subdirectory(aws-lc)
+    endif()
 
     set(UNSAFE_TREAT_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS OFF CACHE BOOL "")
     add_subdirectory(s2n)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e85948c..d7c6291 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@ def get_cmake_path():
     raise Exception("CMake must be installed to build from source.")
 
 
+def using_system_libcrypto():
+    return os.getenv('AWS_CRT_BUILD_USE_SYSTEM_LIBCRYPTO') == '1'
+
+
 class AwsLib:
     def __init__(self, name, extra_cmake_args=[], libname=None):
         self.name = name
@@ -132,8 +136,9 @@ class AwsLib:
 # They're built along with the extension.
 AWS_LIBS = []
 if sys.platform != 'darwin' and sys.platform != 'win32':
-    # aws-lc produces libcrypto.a
-    AWS_LIBS.append(AwsLib('aws-lc', libname='crypto'))
+    if not using_system_libcrypto():
+        # aws-lc produces libcrypto.a
+        AWS_LIBS.append(AwsLib('aws-lc', libname='crypto'))
     AWS_LIBS.append(AwsLib('s2n'))
 AWS_LIBS.append(AwsLib('aws-c-common'))
 AWS_LIBS.append(AwsLib('aws-c-sdkutils'))
@@ -182,6 +187,9 @@ class awscrt_build_ext(setuptools.command.build_ext.build_ext):
             f'-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE={build_type}',
         ])
 
+        if using_system_libcrypto():
+            cmake_args.append('-DUSE_OPENSSL=ON')
+
         if sys.platform == 'darwin':
             # build lib with same MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET that python will ultimately
             # use to link everything together, otherwise there will be linker warnings.
@@ -298,13 +306,13 @@ def awscrt_ext():
         extra_link_args += ['-framework', 'Security']
 
     else:  # unix
-        # linker will prefer shared libraries over static if it can find both.
-        # force linker to choose static variant by using using "-l:libcrypto.a" syntax instead of just "-lcrypto".
-        libraries = [':lib{}.a'.format(x) for x in libraries]
         # OpenBSD doesn't have librt; functions are found in libc instead.
         if not sys.platform.startswith('openbsd'):
             libraries += ['rt']
 
+        if using_system_libcrypto():
+            libraries += ['crypto']
+
         # hide the symbols from libcrypto.a
         # this prevents weird crashes if an application also ends up using
         # libcrypto.so from the system's OpenSSL installation.