Reports disagree on the announcement date. Law360 and other outlets describe it as a Thursday announcement, while WSJ-sourced coverage dates it to Wednesday. The timing is tied to a stalled bill. The proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would give the CFTC authority over digital commodities and clarify the SEC's jurisdiction over investment contracts involving those assets. Law360 reports that after the Clarity Act failed to advance, the CFTC is using a creative reading of a Dodd-Frank Act provision to assert authority over crypto spot markets.
Watch this as part of a wider pattern. Solidus has hired former regulators before; the CFTC's Dawn Stump left the agency in 2022 to join the firm as a "strategic adviser." Coverage places Webb's move alongside Summer Mersinger, a former CFTC commissioner who resigned three years before her term ended and became CEO of the Blockchain Association, and Bo Hines's move to Tether, which has drawn scrutiny. Commentators argue these moves feed concerns about the revolving door between regulators and the crypto sector. For attorneys, the practical point is that Webb helped draft the bills still being negotiated and now works for a company that sells surveillance tools to the markets those bills would govern. Track how his drafting history and his new role are treated in any future rulemaking comments or congressional filings.