WORLD NEWS: This Week in Blockchain and Crypto

This week has been filled with interesting news from across the globe on blockchain and crypto.
 
The Ethereum Instanbul upgrade is coming up in October and will include 6 changes.  The upgrade is expected to boost chain interoperability with privacy coin zcash and help secure the broader network against replay attacks, among other efficiency improvements.
 
Bakkt, a huge institutional investor backed by the company behind the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced that the highly-anticipated physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts will launch late September 2019.
 
Coinbase announcement of its acquisition of Xapo’s institutional custody business increases its assets under custody to a value of $7 billion. Xapo is known for its wallet services including physical vaults.
 
This week also saw the announcement by China Central Bank of an upcoming digital currency which has been under development since 2018. An official at China’s central bank has said the institution is nearing the launch of its digital currency.
 
It was also good news to hear Binance crypto exchange will go live in November 2019. The dedicated U.S. arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance will go live by November, according to Binance’s CEO.
 
The largest Bitcoin drop of over $1,000 for the last couple of months to below $10K before experiencing a slight spike, also took place this week.
 
Below are some of our top 5 most popular posts on www.bitcoinke.io this week: