A 39-year-old Romanian man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from a US government benefits program and other crimes.

According to the Northern District of California’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, Marius Marian stole $507,916 in Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) funds from those who rely on the money to cover basic expenses.

He also pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States following an aggravated felony conviction and making false statements on his asylum application.

Beginning in March 2024, Marian fraudulently obtained EBT funds by using over 601 unique victim EBT account identifiers. EBT benefits are federal funds distributed through the California Department of Social Services to low-income individuals to use for such things as food, rent, childcare and medical expenses.

Marian used skimmer devices on ATM and point-of-sale machines to capture the victims’ EBT card numbers when the victims used the cards. He then encoded the stolen EBT account information on counterfeit bank cards and used them to fraudulently withdraw EBT funds from ATMs in Northern California.

“As a result of his scheme, Marian withdrew $507,916 in cash and intended to withdraw $611,845 in EBT funds. Marian further admitted that his conduct involved sophisticated means and caused substantial financial hardship to at least 25 victims.

Additionally, Marian admitted that on or around April 27, 2023, he knowingly submitted false statements on an application for asylum to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, Marian knowingly failed to disclose in his asylum application that he had been previously deported from the United States and that he had previously been convicted in 2019 of bank fraud.

Finally, Marian acknowledged that he had been previously deported after his 2019 conviction for bank fraud and that he thereafter illegally reentered and was found in the United States.”

For theft of the EBT funds, Marian pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The illegal entry into the US charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, while the asylum fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Marian is due back in court for sentencing on October 20th.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/SerGRAY/Natalia Siiatovskaia

Plus: Sam Altman’s World just got blocked

GM. We picked the ripest headlines and crushed the fluff. What’s left? Just the concentrated stuff you actually need.

Bitcoin Core devs are removing the OP_RETURN data limit.

News drops: Sam Altman’s crypto project ban, Alex Machinsky’s 20-year sentence + more

Market flavor today

Spot Bitcoin ETFs had $425.5M in inflows yesterday.

Strategy bought another 1,895 BTC for $180.3M.

Should be bullish, right? Well… it’s actually kinda disappointing. Because even with all that buying, Bitcoin’s price didn’t get much of a boost.

10xResearch explained why things might be stalling.

1/ The Coinbase premium is falling

The Coinbase premium compares Bitcoin’s price on Coinbase (which is popular with US investors) to its price on other global exchanges.

• If the price on Coinbase is higher than elsewhere, it usually means US buyers are willing to pay extra → strong demand;

• If the price drops below other exchanges, it suggests US buyers aren’t as excited anymore → weak demand.

And right now, fewer US investors are paying extra for Bitcoin, which could be a sign that overall demand is cooling down.

2/ Weak funding rates

Funding rates are fees traders pay to keep betting on Bitcoin’s price going up.

When they’re low, it shows that fewer people are feeling confident about a price rally.

And why the caution? Macro pressures:

• Investors are nervous about the Fed’s interest rate decision tomorrow;

• Volatility’s picking up again;

• Tariff uncertainty’s still alive and well.

Because of all this, Bitcoin seems to be stuck near the $95K level. Traders are waiting to see what happens next before making big moves.

And so, this probably isn’t the time to take wild risks.

Memecoin harvest

Some of y’all doing due diligence, and meanwhile, these coins just sent on a your mom meme.

Data as of 04:55 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

Bitcoin Core devs did something controversial

They’re retiring the 80-byte OP_RETURN limit.

POV literally everyone who isn’t a nerd after reading this:

Lemme explain

OP_RETURN is a feature in Bitcoin transactions that lets users attach a small piece of data to the transaction.

Here’s a simple example of how it works: say you write an important contract today and want to prove when it was created, without paying a notary.

→ You take the digital fingerprint (aka hash) of the contract (which looks like a bunch of random letters and numbers – for example: e3b0c44298fc1c14…).

→ You then make a Bitcoin transaction (even just a few cents) and use the OP_RETURN field to store that hash.

Once the transaction is recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain, it’s public and permanent. Even years later, you can prove that this exact document existed on the date this Bitcoin transaction was recorded. No one can fake or change that.

The current limit for this data is 80 bytes – enough for a short message or a small piece of information. Why?

• If everyone started dumping big files, memes, or, I dunno, videos of old people falling into Bitcoin transactions, the whole system would get bloated and slow;

• It would make it harder and more expensive for regular people to run the computers (called nodes) that keep Bitcoin decentralized.

But… developers say the limit doesn’t really work anymore. People found ways to bypass it, and those methods actually mess up Bitcoin even more.

So, in the next Bitcoin release, it’ll be removed entirely.

And not everyone’s happy:

Jason Hughes, VP of Development and Engineering at Ocean Mining, is VERY against this change. He says:

• It changes what Bitcoin is supposed to be: money, not a data storage system;

• People who wanna shove random, even harmful data into the blockchain will now have an easier, cheaper, and officially approved method;

• More data = bigger blockchain = fewer people able to afford running nodes = more centralization.

At the same time, people are already stuffing data into Bitcoin anyway, and raising the OP_RETURN limit could actually make things cleaner and easier to manage.

So the big question is:

Is it better to keep forcing data into messy, harmful workarounds – or accept that people wanna store data and offer a cleaner, controlled way to do it?

Honestly, both sides have a point.

Hughes is right: Bitcoin’s purpose matters. If you mess with its core principles too much, you risk turning it into something people never agreed to support.

But the devs are also right: ignoring the problem won’t make it go away. People are already finding loopholes, and pretending it’s not happening just leads to messier solutions.

That said… in reality, this probably won’t change that much. Most users likely won’t even notice.

Storing data on Bitcoin is expensive anyway. Miners will allow some bigger data, but no one’s going to pay huge fees just to store junk when cheaper blockchains exist for that.

So, while it might feel like a dramatic change – especially for Bitcoin maxis who see any change as a slippery slope – it’s really just making the rules match what’s already happening, not rewriting what Bitcoin is.

Sip of knowledge

You wake up. Coffee in hand. Another day, another chance to win at something other than Wordle.

Then it hits you. BitDegree launched a new Mission: “Deposit to BingX, Unlock Big Gains”!

The prize pool:

1,300 Bits

3,000+ USDT Welcome Bonus

Flexing rights

You’ve got ’til June 6. Excuses are not accepted. Go get it!

News drops

Indonesia has suspended Sam Altman’s World project (formerly Worldcoin). They noticed suspicious activity and think it might have broken the country’s registration rules.

The US DOJ wants Alex Mashinsky, the founder and ex-CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, to get at least 20 years in prison for misleading users and manipulating prices. Mashinsky called the sentence too harsh – he said it would basically be a “death-in-prison sentence.”

OpenAI says it’s turning its for-profit business into a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), which will still be controlled by its nonprofit parent. PBCs are for-profit companies, but they also have to focus on doing good – not just making money.

Ripple’s donating $25M in Ripple USD to education nonprofits DonorsChoose and Teach For America. They wanna help fix funding gaps in US schools, especially since a recent poll showed 55% of parents and adults aren’t happy with the state of K-12 education.

Florida has dropped out of the race to create state-level crypto reserves. Two bills that would have made it happen were postponed indefinitely and pulled from consideration.

Changelly is throwing a 10-year anniversary party with a $100K+ prize pool! Open the Changelly app, sign up or log in, get a free spin (plus another if you make a transaction), and see what you won.*

*Sponsored

Juicy memes

Solana has extended its price decline below $200, but technical analysis shows that it continues to trade within a bullish setup. At the time of writing, Solana finds itself trading close to a support level that could determine its next major move.

This is because technical analysis shows that Solana is currently trading in a parallel channel that could drive prices to new highs, but holding above the $190 support level is crucial to this outlook.

Related Reading

Solana’s Parallel Channel Supports Bullish Expectations

Solana’s price action in the past seven days has been highlighted by a notable resistance at $205. Particularly, Solana’s rallies have faced rejection at this price point about three times throughout the past seven days. This rejection is particularly notable given that Solana recently reached a new all-time high of $293 in the last 30-day timeframe. The stark contrast between this all-time high and the most recent struggle at $205 shows the intense volatility Solana has experienced in recent weeks.

Despite these fluctuations, technical indicators suggest that Solana remains in a well-defined parallel channel that has been directing its price movements since July 2024. This structured price channel consists of a sequence of higher highs and higher lows. Although there have been occasional pullbacks, the broader trend suggests that buyers are still in control and preventing a major breakdown to keep Solana’s bullish structure intact.

The presence of this parallel channel was emphasized in a recent technical analysis by Ali Martinez, a well-known crypto analyst. Martinez highlighted that as long as Solana maintains its position within this formation, there’s still the possibility for a recovery to $225, with a further extension toward $260.

These price projections are derived from Fibonacci extension levels, specifically the 0.786 and 1.0 Fibonacci levels, projected from Solana’s October 2023 low of $125. However, for this bullish outlook to remain valid, the analyst cautioned that Solana must hold above $190. Failure to maintain this support level could invalidate the upward momentum and cause a downside move.

Image from X: Ali_Charts

Why $190 Is A Critical Level For Solana

Despite the bullish trajectory, Solana’s ability to maintain support at $190 is crucial for sustaining upward momentum. This is because $190 is around the lower trendline of the parallel channel. 

Solana has tested this $190 price level multiple times since the beginning of the month, even breaking below it when it bottomed at $184 on February 3. Although it has since recovered as buyers were active in defending the price, the continued proximity to $190 indicates lingering weakness and the risk of a deeper correction if bears manage to overpower bullish defenses.

Related Reading

At the time of writing, Solana is trading at $193, down by about 1.47% in the past 24 hours. 

Featured image from Medium, chart from TradingView