Here's how I see the whole SEC thing: I don't think Gary Gensler really gives a shit about crypto either way - he just sees it as a very easy target to go after to achieve his own goals. What are his goals? To get promoted to the Treasury Department (specifically to take Janet Yellen's job) and assume more power for himself. What's the best way to do that? To appease his superiors - high-ranking democrats and the president. What do his superiors want? Public favor so that they can retain power. One of the best ways to get this public favor is to be seen as being "tough on crime" so Gensler does this by bringing SEC enforcement actions against highly visible targets (Coinbase, Binance, celebrities promoting shitcoins etc). He mostly ignores the low-visibility but actual scams/frauds that we all know about in crypto (think of all the people ZachXBT exposes that the SEC never goes after). So why is Gensler going after crypto specifically? Because crypto is very hated by the general public thanks to all the high-profile fraud and scams that took place (Terra, FTX, 3ac etc) and all the money that was lost by retail investors. Notice how he does a media tour after every high profile enforcement action? That's simply more marketing for himself and the democrats. All in all, Gensler probably won't be SEC chair long enough to see the Coinbase and Binance cases play out to their end - but I don't think he cares about that - he just wants to his promotion and at this rate, he's probably going to get it. Oh and lastly, he very clearly does not give one shit about "protecting investors" - if he did he would be playing a very different game.