For the SEC and what they have historically worked on though this is an entirely new industry. They had never before had to deal with anything like this. Its kinda like the computer and FinTech which enabled Robinhood and the surge of new traders.
I also have a differing view of some of these blockchains that I am not sure many people have. For instance if and this is a huge if Ethereum "makes it" then it is going to essentially create what I see as a global computer via smart contracts. Some may call it a new internet or whatever but because of the technical aspect behind it I think of it as almost a computer.
One the SEC has gone after and I think has stupidly done so because the idea was great and the engagement was great was the Chiliz Blockchain that issues Fan Tokens. Yes Fan Tokens and Chiliz itself started to be worth something but they gave away tens of millions of their token and approached the sport/fan engagement angel from something that was new unique and fun. I am sure somehow people thought that they were going to make money with this because that is what people do but Chiliz did what they could to tamper down and prevent that. I mean you could even "find" fan tokens in the wild.
Yet after the successful launch into the US, Chiliz which has a huge partnership with a ton of Premier League Teams and all sorts of other soccer and gaming and I think basketball teams even as partners the SEC went after them for being an investment product. Instead of engaging with the company and learning Gensler just slapped them with a lawsuit. I'm not sure if you are aware but I want to say it was earlier this summer two huge people from the SEC left over his failure to engage with these various companies to understand or even give them an opportunity to register with the SEC.
We saw in a hearing last week that while he claims that there is a way for these firms to register and "come into compliance" no one has been able to because the SEC has been both changing what they want as well as just issuing denials but not saying why it was denied. The witness from Robinhood was a former big SEC person and he even said no one will tell us what is wrong why we can't register and when we ask questions they don't have responses.
You cannot run a vital regulatory agency like this. Much like AI the genie is out of the bottle here and you need/must take a commonsense layered approach. This starts by engaging the industry and giving them the pathway to become a compliment because if you don't you just end up with FTX like situation where they just go right outside US jurisdiction and create a house of cards and leave a lot of US citizens holding the bag when it all falls.