I got an email from the exchange I use stating the Istanbul hard fork is to occur at block 9069000 at approximately 15:44:36 PST on December 7. It happened already but they have suspended all deposits and withdrawals from happening until further notice.
It is not a contentious fork and so does not result in any new coins from it happening.
So why would they decide to suspend all transactions of ethereum?
All is just a plan and they can change at any time. This happened because the Instanbul community was so few, making the hard fork difficult because there were not many supporters and sympathizers. We also have to sympathize with this new organization, they need to stabilize on their plans and strategies after the hard fork to make sure their goals can succeed. Anyway, this hard fork doesn't mean much to me, I just expect Ethereum 2.0, Staking will help a lot of rich people.