diff --git a/bgzf.c b/bgzf.c
index 8092c7b9a..2c224b21b 100644
--- a/bgzf.c
+++ b/bgzf.c
@@ -548,6 +548,10 @@ BGZF *bgzf_hopen(hFILE *hfp, const char *mode)
 }
 
 #ifdef HAVE_LIBDEFLATE
+uint32_t hts_crc32(uint32_t crc, const void *buf, size_t len) {
+    return libdeflate_crc32(crc, buf, len);
+}
+
 int bgzf_compress(void *_dst, size_t *dlen, const void *src, size_t slen, int level)
 {
     if (slen == 0) {
@@ -607,6 +611,10 @@ int bgzf_compress(void *_dst, size_t *dlen, const void *src, size_t slen, int le
 
 #else
 
+uint32_t hts_crc32(uint32_t crc, const void *buf, size_t len) {
+    return crc32(crc, buf, len);
+}
+
 int bgzf_compress(void *_dst, size_t *dlen, const void *src, size_t slen, int level)
 {
     uint32_t crc;
diff --git a/htslib/hts.h b/htslib/hts.h
index 08bf71c2c..3b6d8b05c 100644
--- a/htslib/hts.h
+++ b/htslib/hts.h
@@ -1517,6 +1517,14 @@ static inline int hts_bin_level(int bin) {
     return l;
 }
 
+/**************************************
+ * Exposing the CRC32 implementation  *
+ * Either from zlib or libdeflate.    *
+ *************************************/
+HTSLIB_EXPORT
+uint32_t hts_crc32(uint32_t crc, const void *buf, size_t len);
+
+
 //! Compute the corresponding entry into the linear index of a given bin from
 //! a binning index
 /*!