We’ve got BIG, BIG news this week and you probably know what it is (hint: Bakkt). But there’s been a lot else that has been happening as well, mostly to do with individual projects or entities making some important changes or hitting important milestones.

Q3/Q4 2019 is turning out to be a very interesting phase for crypto and one that definitely seems to be pointing towards a major bull run in the next 6 to 12 months. So far, we’ve been holding well at around $10,000 and some people seem disappointed that Bakkt has not done much to push the price further up but that will take time. We are halfway to our all time high and things have never looked better.

With that said, let’s crack on with the news.

1. Bakkt Launches, Trades 71 BTC (Over $600,000) in 24 Hours

The news we start with is of course the biggest news of the week, which is that Bakkt has finally launched. After many, many delays, we get the big retail outreach investment vehicle that so many people have been hoping for.

The numbers in the first 24 hours are impressive: about 71 BTC (over $600,000) worth Bitcoin futures contracts have been traded. This is a pretty big deal, given that Bakkt serves retail investors .

However, many people have looked at this slightly negatively, saying that the price should have gone up further. It’s true that the price actually dipped below $10,000, but an immediate jump isn’t realistic.

The benefits of Bakkt’s launch, and the accessibility provided to retail investors, will only be seen in the long run.

2. Kik Might Shut Down its Messaging App

News is coming out that Kik might shut down its messaging app following the protracted legal battle it is facing with the SEC over its $100 million ICO in 2017. Kik had already laid off 70 of its employees and CEO Ted Livingstone made the official announcement that the messaging app would be shutting down.

What’s interesting though is that he also said that 19 employees that remain would work on the Kin token and its related services. Livingstone said,

Instead of selling some of our Kin into the limited liquidity that exists today, we made the decision to focus our current resources on the few things that matter most. So today we are announcing three things: We will shut down the Kik app We will reduce our headcount to an elite 19 person team We will focus on one thing: converting Kin users into Kin buyers

The team sees very intent on making the Kin ecosystem as usable, with the CEO even saying that it is “close to adding a lot more firepower”,

Kin is a currency used by millions of people in dozens of independent apps. So, while the SEC might be able to push us around, taking on the broader Kin Ecosystem will be a much bigger fight. And the Ecosystem is close to adding a lot more firepower.

3. Ripple Adds Major UAE Bank to RippleNet

Ripple has another yet another financial institution to its platform after the National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) has joined the network to boost its cross-border payments. The news was first reported by Dubai business publication Entrepreneur Middle East.

This follows another addition earlier this month when Ripple signed Pakistan-based bank Faysal Bank Limited (FBL), one of the country’s largest private banks, to the RippleNet. RippleNet has well over 200 members participating in it.

The article in the magazine speaks of how the NBF plans to use Ripple,

With the mass spreading of Blockchain technology, NBF is utilising the benefits of Ripple-Net to provide frictionless experience for sending and receiving money globally and is working with other banks to implement Ripple in 2019.

4. EOS Hard Forks Successfully

The EOS project, which has been on the receiving end of criticism over the past few months, has successfully hard forked on Monday after the network’s block producers decided to go through with the update.

The version has upgraded to version 1.8, and this marks the network’s first hard fork. CEO of Block.One, the company behind EOS’ development, Brendan Blumer celebrated the upgrade and spoke of the improvements it would bring,

Congratulations #EOS, today’s 1.8 upgrade now allows application developers to offer a free and frictionless UX to their customers. Users no longer need to worry about resources!

Investors have also spoken positively of the upgrade, saying that it would make the network stronger and prevent network congestion attacks.

There is also some discussion that this upgrade is in preparation for Block.One’s social media platform initiative, Voice, which was announced a few months ago.

5. Germany’s Second Largest Stock Exchange Boerse Stuttgart Launches Exchange

Boerse Stuttgart, the entity behind Germany’s second biggest stock exchange, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, has launched its digital asset exchange, Digital Exchange of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange (BSDEX). This is the first regulated exchange in the nation. Currently, only the Bitcoin-Euro trading pair is available.

CEO of the Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange, Dirk Sturz, said,

With cryptocurrencies, a billion-dollar market has emerged. Based on the blockchain, further digital assets will be established. For this, we want to build the leading European trading center.

Trading is available for almost 24 hours, 7 days a week, with market and limit orders available at the moment. It has been stated that more options will be available soon.

Pretty big week, right? It’s amazing the pace with which the crypto market seems to be moving. Give it a few more months and it’ll be crypto Christmas for investors.