The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the Ethereum spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), but the price of Ether (ETH) failed to hold above $3,800, surprising many as ETH was trading at $3,943 just two days prior. Despite the ETF approval, Ether remains 24% below its all-time high of $4,868 from November 2021. Over the past 30 days, Ethereum network usage metrics have shown a lack of growth in decentralized applications (DApps) volumes and deposits. Miner-extracted value (MEV) has also posed a challenge for Ethereum, leading to network congestion and higher gas fees. Ongoing regulatory actions against Consensys and the Ethereum Foundation continue to cast a shadow over Ether's performance.