| Bitcoin | $19,407 | 7 day: +2.5% | | Ethereum | $587 | 7 day: +1.7% | | All crypto | $565B | 7 day: +1.8% | | Bitcoin dominance | 63.6% | 7 day: +0.8% | Prices as of 12 p.m. EST
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Researchers have discovered a new "21%" hack that threatens most blockchains, including bitcoin. - Contrary to the common belief that attackers require 51% of the entire mining network's capacity, just 21% can be catastrophic.
- A team of researchers from the Technicon Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell Tech found a new vulnerability called BDoS (blockchain denial of service) that allows someone with just 21% mining control to halt any proof-of-work blockchain.
- In their academic paper, the team described the attack, which is the first of its kind.
- The researchers conclude that bitcoin is vulnerable to BDoS, especially as miners' profitability declines.
- BDoS exploits the reward mechanism to affect miners' participation negatively.
- There have been no known, successful BDoS attacks against bitcoin to date.
The Block Crypto 
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 Mexican Cartel Areas Reuters investigates the role of bitcoin in Mexico's criminal cartels. - Reporters focus on a case that began in 2019 with the arrest of a crime boss who laundered money using bitcoin.
- Mexican police followed a trail of bitcoin transactions, leading to the capture and arrest of human trafficker Ignacio Santoyo in the Caribbean resort area of Playa del Carmen.
- Santoyo tried to launder the money he earned through a prostitution ring across Latin America using bitcoin.
- According to Mexico's law enforcement, most major criminal operations for drugs, guns, and human trafficking have turned to crypto to launder some of their money.
- A new law passed in Mexico in 2018 allows government authorities to trace bitcoin and other privacy-centric cryptocurrencies.
- Police note increased bitcoin usage in the biggest drug cartels, including Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel.
Reuters
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 Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) labels bitcoin the best-performing and most volatile major asset of the year. Bank analysts liken bitcoin to the 1850s gold rush, "which involved more speculating than investing." - The San Francisco-based bank published an investment strategy report on Dec. 7, 2020, suggesting bitcoin had been the best-performing asset of 2020 while highlighting its substantial volatility.
- The report noted that bitcoin outperformed gold and the S&P 500 Index over the past three years.
- Analysts suggested that having accumulated $541B of market capitalization since inception, cryptocurrencies are becoming "investment-worthy."
- This report indicates a change in Wells Fargo's outlook for bitcoin; the bank banned customers from using its credit cards to buy bitcoin in 2018.
CoinTelegraph
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 Seoul Police Seoul police charged Coinbit's chairman and two other executives for engaging in market manipulation. - According to a South Korean news outlet, Seoul Police and authorities charged the chairman and two other executives of Coinbit, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Gangnam-gu.
- South Korean prosecutors are preparing to litigate using evidence of ghost accounts and efforts between August 2019 and May 2020 to elevate transaction volumes and cryptocurrency prices artificially.
- Coinbit Chairman Choi Mo and two unnamed subordinates from the management team allegedly acquired wash trading profits of $84M through fraudulent activities.
- Seoul's Shinmun reported that the alleged conduct affected as much as 99% of all Coinbit transaction volume, most of which was wash trading.
- On Aug. 26, 2020, Seoul Metropolitan Police searched Coinbit headquarters.
The Block Crypto
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Hong Kong's Monetary Authority is testing digital-yuan-denominated cross-border payments. - Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), published a letter regarding cross-border testing of the digital yuan.
- Yue also mentioned that some digital renminbi is already in use in Hong Kong with the same status as cash.
- HKMA is working with the Bank of Thailand to address cross-border payments.
Coindesk
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 Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Ohio's House Bill 220, which enables government authorities to utilize blockchain tech, moves to the state's senate. - Democrat-sponsored House Bill 220 passed Ohio's House of Representatives with a 89-2 vote.
- If ultimately signed into law, the bill would enable state bodies to utilize distributed ledger technology in their operations.
- If it clears the state senate, enactment to law rests with Republican Governor Mike DeWine.
- The state of Ohio legalized the use of some blockchain-based data in 2018 to attract industry, and has been mulling a decision to allow blockchain for voting since May 2020.
- More recently, newly appointed Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague suspended his predecessor's platform to enable businesses to pay taxes with bitcoin.
Coindesk
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- Jack Dorsey's payments company Square (NYSE:SQ) announced a new clean energy initiative to allay concerns about bitcoin mining, pledging $10M to become "carbon neutral" by 2030.
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said at Singapore Fintech Fest, while on a panel with Diem (formerly Libra) Association's Stuart Levey, that digital currencies could reach billions of users.
- On Dec. 8, also during the Singapore Fintech Fest, Facebook's David Marcus said that his team expects to launch Diem, and Facebook's wallet "Novi," sometime during 2021.
- DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) CEO Daniel Springer, whose e-sign software has utilized Ethereum smart contracts since 2018, indicated that the company is currently not looking for further blockchain adoption. High costs were the main deterrent — up to 13x higher than a traditional database, as reported by Quartz. DocuSign's average agreement e-signed by all parties costs $0.07; using Ethereum, that same agreement would exceed $1.
- Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio spoke in favor of bitcoin during an AMA session held on Reddit on Dec. 8, calling bitcoin a "diversifier to gold, if not its alternative."
- Analysts at Citigroup (NYSE:C) downgraded Virginia-based MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) following its fundraise of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt simply to buy more bitcoin.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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