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Deborah Kovsky-Apap

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Deborah provides clients with practical advice on bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts, and distressed M&A transactions, in addition to possessing substantial litigation and trial experience in the areas of insolvency and commercial law.

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On November 20, U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R‑AR) and Senator Cory Booker (D‑NJ) released a new bipartisan discussion draft to create a federal spot‑market regime for “digital commodities” under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The proposal, which expands upon the CLARITY Act approved by the House in July, would give the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over cash and spot trading in covered non‑security crypto tokens, establish registration frameworks for exchanges, brokers, and dealers, impose listing and public‑information standards, require qualified custody and strict segregation of customer assets, enhance retail protections, and clarify bankruptcy treatment of customer property.

On June 24, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC), Subcommittee on Digital Assets Chair Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) released a set of guiding principles for the development of comprehensive market structure legislation for digital assets. These principles, described in more detail below, aim to provide a foundational framework for discussions and negotiations with industry participants, legal and academic experts, and government stakeholders. This announcement comes on the heels of the House Committees on Agriculture and Financial Services both favorably reporting to the House the CLARITY Act (discussed here), which aims to establish a clear regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States. and the recent passage by the U.S. Senate of the GENIUS Act, a landmark effort to establish a comprehensive federal framework for the payment stablecoins (discussed here).

On June 17, the U.S. Senate voted 68-30 to pass S.1582, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act (the Act). This represents a landmark effort by the U.S. Congress to establish a comprehensive federal framework for the regulation of payment stablecoins. Passed with bipartisan support in the Senate, the Act aims to provide regulatory clarity, enhance consumer protection, and safeguard national security in the rapidly growing stablecoin sector.

After years of uncertainty and regulation by enforcement, the U.S. may finally be moving toward a more comprehensive framework for the regulation of digital assets. On June 4, 2025, the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: From Blueprint to a Functional Framework. The hearing followed Committee Chairman French Hill’s introduction of H.R. 3633 — the CLARITY Act of 2025 (the Act) — on May 30, 2025. The Committee is expected to continue its markup of the Act at its June 10, 2025, Full Committee Markup hearing.

We are pleased to share with you our latest publication, “Navigating Change: First 100 Days under the Trump Administration,” authored by our Digital Assets + Blockchain team. This retrospective examines the pivotal developments in the digital assets industry during the initial phase of the Trump administration.

Overview: The Fifth Circuit’s highly anticipated decision on December 31, 2024, in the Serta Simmons case has significant implications for borrowers and lenders in financial distress situations. The issue on appeal concerned an uptier transaction, a liability management exercise sometimes referred to as “lender-on-lender violence.” The Fifth Circuit’s opinion addresses the contractual viability of uptier transactions and the enforceability of related indemnities in bankruptcy plans, potentially reshaping the landscape for future financial restructurings.