Ready Makers Inc. is in a battle with itself. Or, rather, with some of its entities.
A number of blockchain gaming deals result in disputes when it comes to cooperation between entrepreneurs and investors, particularly over the issuance of tokens by the company. A case in point is the dispute between the original investors/leader of Ready Makers Inc. and its division Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Ltd. It’s the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.
The division, formerly known as Ready.gg, now calls itself Play Network, a Web3 gaming platform company that makes it easier for game companies to create Web3 games. Play Network’s CEO is Christina Macedo, and she said she hired John Nash as COO in June 24, 2024, when she was promoted upward to CEO. At the time, she replaced the outgoing founding CEO David S. Bennahum, who started the company in New York in 2019. Now they’re in a legal battle. We are trying to figure out who Nash is.
Shawn Layden, former chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, is listed as an adviser to Play. Macedo and Layden declined to comment for this story. Bennahum made a comment in a press release about the lawsuit but did not agree to an interview.
Bennahum and other investors in Ready Makers Inc. filed their lawsuit against Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Ltd. as it prepared to launch tokens for Play. The lawsuit said that Play failed to disburse 18% of the Token Cap table to the investors.
In the lawsuit, Ready Makers Inc. asked for a temporary restraining order granting them access to the Readyio GitHub account and accompany repositories for the firm’s projects. Delaware Court of Chancery’s Paul Fioravanti Jr., vice chancellor, granted the TRO.
In general, it’s a sad situation, in part because disputes like this show how immature the Web3 gaming space is. People may look at this whole situation as one more debacle that makes them glad to avoid blockchain gaming altogether.
The court order noted that Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Ltd. operates under the direction of Macedo, Ready Makers’ former COO, and should restore Ready Makers Inc.’ access to critical blockchain gaming technology and infrastructure, including GitHub repositories, cloud systems, and domain accounts.
The Delaware Court of Chancery ruling follows Ready Gibraltar’s December launch of the $PLAY cryptocurrency token, which Ready Makers alleges violated contractual obligations to its investors. Ready Makers alleged that it had entrusted Macedo to operate the Gibraltar entity for a planned token listing after raising $8.5 million from gaming industry leaders including Strauss Zelnick (Take-Two Interactive Chairman), Bitkraft Ventures, and prominent investors to develop technology enabling game publishers to integrate blockchain features.
“Ready Games developed this infrastructure with funding from leading gaming investors. Ready Gibraltar seized control of that technology and falsely claimed to have developed it independently,” said David S. Bennahum, Ready Games’ founder, in a statement on January 7.
“We are grateful to the court for its swift action to protect our intellectual property rights. While this enforcement of Ready’s rights is necessary, the fundamental mission of the platform remains unchanged,” said Bennahum. “Our goal continues to be building an inclusive, sustainable platform that serves both gamers and token holders in the broader web3 gaming ecosystem.”
“We stand fully behind Ready Makers in this matter,” said Scott Rupp, founding general partner of Bitkraft Ventures, a global gaming VC firm, in a statement. “We remain fully committed to Ready’s vision of empowering game developers with seamless blockchain integration tools.”
Ready vs. Ready
The case is Ready Makers Inc. v. Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Limited, No. 2024-1355-PAF, Delaware Court of Chancery.
Bennahum started Ready Makers Inc. in 2016, operating as Ready Games, with a focus on enabling game publishers to seamlessly integrate blockchain features into existing games. The investors included gaming and media industry leaders Take-Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick, Bitkraft Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Eldridge Industries, Front Range Ventures, and prominent angel investors such as Jason Calacanis’ Launch Fund and Sebastien Borget, COO of The Sandbox.
The lawsuit alleged that, under the alias, John Nash, Cutrone has canceled major contracts held by Play, fraudulently, and may have violated multiple securities laws — selling and managing securities under an alias, for example.
The lawsuit alleges “brazen breaches of contract and its unlawful misappropriation of plaintiff’s proprietary and confidential information, intellectual property and trade secrets.”
In October 2017, Bennahum hired Macedo as operations manager for Ready Canada and Ready US. Ready US started operating in 2018 as a mobile gaming platform aimed at democratizing game creation. Its own mobile games got an audience of 2.5 million players.
Over time, the company developed different strategic tools, including some focused on blockchain games. It said, “Core to blockchain gaming, domains like ready.gg host the infrastructure necessary to support Ready US’ gaming platforms by enabling features such as the user-generated content marketplace, tokenized economics and centralized platforms.”
Starting in 2021, Bennahum focused Ready US’ research and development to integrate blockchain technology. The assets are backed by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) allowing for ownership, trading and resale across games. To build out its blockchain ecosystem, Ready US decided to launch a token, previously called $AURA, now called $PLAY. The token was aimed at incentivizing developers, creators and players.
Ready Makers Inc. (a Delaware legal corporation, based in New York) alleges it made an agreement with the defendant in supporting a token economy in August 2022. Ready Gibraltar, formed in February 2022, would handle the token issuance because such transactions in the U.S. have been under more strict legal restrictions than in Gibraltar. Ready US chairman Davidi Gilo entrusted the token launch of Macedo.
The lawsuit said that Bennahum agreed to step down as CEO of Ready US and president of Ready Canada on July 19, 2024, based on the agreement on how Macedo would run Ready Gibraltar. Bennahum authorized the transfer of the Readyio GitHub account and more to Ready Canada’s then-CTO Martin Cormier.
Ready Gibraltar would pay fees to the plaintiff, issue $AURA/$PLAY tokens to plaintiff’s stakeholders and abide by strict confidentiality and security provisions.
But instead of doing that, Ready Makers alleged that the defendant refused to issue the tokens and, through its agents and affiliates, unlawfully seized control of the tech and domains, undermining the plaintiff’s business operations and reputation.
Ready Gibraltar had planned to hold the token generation event (TGE) for December 10, 2024. Ready US expected the tokens would be issued to Ready US stakeholders. But that did not happen and so Gilo sent a breach of contract notice to Macedo and terminated her from her positions and then reinstated Bennahum as an officer of Ready US. Gilo directed Cormier to return control of the company’s accounts but never received a reply from Cormier. Bennahum alleged passwords on the accounts were changed without his authorization.
Bennahum alleged in an affidavit in the lawsuit that Ready Gibraltar set up an alias, ThePlay.Network, as a parallel operation. And in a declaration of her own, Macedo stated that Gilo and Bennahum of Ready US were not involved in any capacity in development of the PLAY token. She noted that Ready Gibraltar raised $7 million without Ready US.
Macedo alleged she was not paid by Ready Canada after August 2022, but Bennahum said she was paid $306,189.37 from August 1, 2022, and December 1, 2024, and he provided info about those payments. Bennahum also said he did 40 virtual investor meetings to presell rights to the $PLAY tokens, raising $3.1 million in that effort. One of the deals he arranged was raising $2 million in a conversation with Aptos CEO Moe Shaikh at an event in South Korea in September 2023.
Ready Makers Inc. alleged that Macedo’s firm launched a domain on January 1, 2025, that mimicked the IP of Ready Makers Inc.’s IP. It alleged that Ready Gibraltar’s entire business rests on the alleged property stolen from Ready Makers Inc.
“It is this intellectual property that creates Ready Gibraltar’s value; without it, Ready Gibraltar has nothing,” the lawsuit said.
Meanwhile, Macedo’s company Play issued a press release saying it has created a partnership with Forte, a blockchain gaming company. The deal has to do with payments for blockchain transactions. But there was no mention of the litigation with Ready Makers Inc.
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