Tux Pacific is among the few founders in cryptocurrency taking issue with the popular trade of the moment, Crystal writes.

Driving the news: With crypto world trying to climb out of the doldrums and the Securities and Exchange Commission filing lawsuits against virtually everyone in sight, a lot of attention (and lobbying dollars) has been centered on Capitol Hill, where efforts to provide a regulatory framework around crypto are still very much in flux.

• Politics often makes for strange bedfellows, a reality the industry seems to accept. Pacific, however, is having none of it.

What they're saying: "When you lobby Republicans or right-wing candidates who are pro-crypto and who have poor human rights stances, you're making a big tradeoff," they tell Axios, sipping an iced flat white sitting in a makeshift shed in front of a coffee shop in Brooklyn.

• "While we're improving crypto, we're losing human rights, losing LGBTQIA rights, and that bothers me."

Pacific is part of digital currency's "I-don't-kn0w-how-many-crypto-group-chats-I'm-in" set — they "eat, sleep and breathe crypto."

• The 27-year-old trans founder explains that "we're on the verge of a political movement, discovering something really big to change the world for the better."

What others say: "People go, 'That's so utopian' and I'm like, it's not — this isn't just a tool to make some hedge fund some money, it's also a tool to evade oppression."

• Lately, folks seem more excited about bitcoin-in-a-box than the tech and the ideals underlying the advent of the world's largest digital asset, Pacific suggested.

Zoom out: Pacific founded entropy.xyz, decentralized infrastructure for threshold signing protocols helpful in decentralized finance and crypto wallet security.

• Entropy is backed by a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures and Dragonfly Capital.

In the weeds: Threshold signatures are a solution that allows people to compute cryptographic signatures between a number of different computers or parties.

• In a custody use case, a person might be able to split their private key into end pieces that would protect them from getting their funds stolen; if a hacker steals their phone, the person could turn off signing.
• That's one of the products in development at entropy, Pacific says.

Context: "I'm an anarchist. Generally I avoid both parties like the plague because they do more harm to my community than they do any good, really."

• Pacific is what is called an "anti-capitalist free market anarchist." (Think Center for a Stateless Society.)

Case in point: The argument has come up a lot lately, with SEC strong-arming and a lack of coherent regulation leading crypto to debate whether a "chokepoint" is strangling the industry. In theory, that may benefit economies abroad.

• "The free market solution to a poor regulatory environment in the U.S. is to simply move overseas. That's happening," Pacific tells Axios.
• "It is natural, normal and good for companies to leave for better, more favorable jurisdictions." (Pacific nods at a parallel: Some families are leaving their home states in the U.S. for others that support gender-affirming care.)
• "When people say things like 'If we had open borders, people in developing countries would flood to the United States and wherever,' [anarchists] say, 'That's the point.'"

Go deeper

Some people want to put things in a box; others want to put things on the blockchain, Crystal writes.

Zoom in: A little over $650 million in U.S. Treasuries have been tokenized since the start of the year, according to data platform rwa.xyz.

• There are tokens from asset managers like Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree in the mix, but also crypto native shops like Ondo Finance and Matrixdock.
• They use the Polygon, Ethereum and Stellar networks.

Quick take: It's a different but similar effort to spot bitcoin exchange traded funds — a bridge between the crypto world and the real one. But exactly which wares prove more useful is another matter.

Some enforcement action ends in settlement, Crystal writes.

Driving the news: Crypto exchange Bittrex agreed to settle SEC claims that, among other things, it operated an unregistered national securities exchange and offered investors unregistered securities. It will also pay $24 million as part of the settlement.

Flashback: The SEC sued the Seattle-based exchange, its parent company and founder Bill Shihara in April, shortly after the U.S. affiliate closed, citing regulatory uncertainty.

Why it matters: No one's really keeping score, but both the industry and regulatory agencies are trying to win points through these cases.

• Whereas Coinbase Global and Binance US are in the throes of duking out the finer points of their respective SEC lawsuits, others like Kraken and now Bittrex have decided to move on.

What they're saying: "For years, Bittrex worked with token issuers to 'scrub' their online statements of any indicia that they were investment contracts — all in an effort to evade the federal securities laws. They failed," Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement.

The other side: Bittrex Global, in a statement sent to Axios, said: "We are delighted to have reached a settlement agreement with the SEC so quickly following the submission of our motion to dismiss."

Details: As part of the settlement, Bittrex, Bittrex Global and Shihara "neither admit nor deny the SEC's allegations."

• Bittrex will have until 90 days after its liquidation plan is effective to pay the SEC; the terms of the settlement are subject to approval of the bankruptcy court.
• Shihara, who was named personally in the lawsuit, was not fined.

Quick take: Call it a draw.

🗑️ Barry Silbert, Digital Currency Group file motion to toss Gemini lawsuit. (Axios)

🤳 Solana cut the price of its $1,000 Saga smartphone by $400. (Solana)

🇦🇷 Argentina is investigating Worldcoin over data privacy. (CoinDesk)

🖍️ Fintech SoFi outlines regulatory risks for crypto business. (Blockworks)

Here's an approval matrix to get behind, Crystal writes.

Zoom in: In a chart mapping "in jail" and "not in jail," "has been hacked" and "has not been hacked" — you want to be up and to the right. Your competitors would be in the other sections.

Yes, but: It'd be easier for a brand-new shop to land in that ideal cross-section than one that's been around for a while.