Jason Somensatto of Ethereum-Based Project Joins CFTC. What Are His Duties?

Lawyer Jason Somensatto, former senior legal counsel of Ethereum-based decentralized digital assets exchange protocol 0x (ZRX), announces that he is going to join the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). What will his new mission be?

From Ethereum to CFTC

Mr. Somensatto, who joined the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem in 2018, has shared the news of his new role. According to his latest tweet, he will serve as policy and technology specialist at LabCFTC. The seasoned blockchain lawyer will help the agency to advance its understanding of how regulation afffects the crypto and fintech segments.

Mr. Somensatto is one of the first top-tier lawyers working in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies sphere. He started writing about the crypto segment in 2014 and joined the 0x project as its first lawyer since the very early days of ZRX.

Prior to entering the blockchain sphere, Mr. Somensatto worked in different private legal firms. According to his biography, he represented clients under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchanges Commission.

In 0x, he coordinated the efforts of 40 officers and developed legal and policy strategy for this popular DEX. Thus, the CFTC team is joined by an expert who is familiar with all sides of the cryptocurrencies business.

What does the community say

In the main, Mr. Somensatto's colleagues are excited about his appointment. Neeraj Agrawal of CoinCenter, a think tank that addresses the regulatory aspects of cryptocurrencies progress, admitted that Somensatto's addition to the team is a smart bet for CFTC:

congrats Jason! there’s no better expert

Also, crypto journalists Frank Chaparro and Laura Shin, and investment fund managers Nick Tomaino and Linda Xie, congratulated Mr. Somensatto on this career step.

However, John Carvalho, host of The Biz podcast and ex-CCO of Bitrefill company, is sarcastic about an industry-level expert who joins such an agency:

So you're going from a shitcoin scam to helping the government restrict Bitcoin usage, cool.

As covered by U.Today previously, CFTC made headlines on Oct. 1, 2020, as it charged leading crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX with massive AML violations and illegal trading.