I think you hit the nail on the head: he has a vested interest and ethereum presents a runway for coinbase. IMO Bitcoin's problem, as depicted by this thread,

I think you hit the nail on the head: he has a vested interest and ethereum presents a runway for coinbase. IMO Bitcoin's problem, as depicted by this thread, is complexity, which ethereum adds more of instead of less. Make money work first, then create specialized verticals after.