Crypto law firm Burwick Law has called out Solana-based non-fungible token platform Metaplex’s plan to sweep unclaimed Solana (SOL) into its treasury instead of returning it to investors, suggesting it could be at risk of litigation if it follows through with the plan.

Last year, Metaplex, an NFT protocol, discovered a way to reduce the amount of onchain storage required for certain NFTs. By resizing the NFTs, Solana NFT holders can claim a small amount of SOL.

In October, Metaplex said that Metaplex Token Metadata (TM) NFT holders will be able to execute a “resize optimization” for all TM accounts with a deadline of April 25.

Those who didn’t do it voluntarily by the deadline would have their excess SOL transferred to the Metaplex DAO automatically, with how they’re to be used yet to be determined.

However, Burwick criticized the firm’s plan to sweep unclaimed funds to its DAO treasury instead of returning them to NFT holders.

“Many minters never received clear notice that these lamports could be swept, let alone diverted to a treasury they do not control,” Burwick said in an April 22 open letter to Metaplex and the broader Solana community.

Burwick said over 54,000 SOL tokens are at risk, and according to Metaplex’s website, only 7,043 SOL have been claimed. At current market prices, more than $6.5 million remains unclaimed.

Burwick said many of the NFT collectors it represents have shared “deep concerns” about the plan.

Burwick added that Metaplex’s plan “erodes trust” and “violates the spirit of crypto.”

“‘Code is law’ only works when the rules are clear and immutable. If a protocol can rewrite yesterday’s deal tomorrow, the promise of decentralised permanence rings hollow.”Source: Burwick Law

Burwick said such a move could entitle victims to restitution should a court find the sweep constituted unjust enrichment or violates consumer protection laws.

Metaplex hasn’t responded to Burwick’s X post. Cointelegraph reached out to Metaplex but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Metaplex said the unclaimed SOL may be used for the DAO to vote on airdrops, distribute grants to ecosystem builders, or other initiatives.

Source: Metaplex

Burwick pitches what Metaplex should do instead

The crypto lawyers advised Metaplex to pause the plan and refund rent directly to current NFT holders while retaining a “modest” network-maintenance bounty of 10%.

“A 90 / 10 split protects users, preserves DAO funding, and proves that the Solana ecosystem can self‑regulate—without a courtroom.”

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Burwick noted that other DeFi protocols have resolved similar issues this way.

The lawyers said there is still plenty of time for Metaplex to execute such a strategy and avoid litigation where funds could be frozen.

“The ball is in the DAO’s court. Let’s show the world that Web3 corrects its own course and lives up to its founding principles of transparency, immutability, and fair dealing.”

Magazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick — ‘The ambulance chaser of crypto’

Crypto markets avoided the fallout caused by US President Donald Trump’s latest salvo against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which saw the US stock market slump and the dollar continue to weaken over uncertainty.

Stock markets across the United States ended April 21 in the red, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.4%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipping 2.5%, and the Dow Jones losing 2.5%, or nearly 1,000 points, according to Google Finance. 

The S&P 500 has now declined by more than 12% since the beginning of the year, and the Nasdaq is down almost 18% in the US tech stock exodus. 

US stock heatmap. Source: TradingView

The stock slide follows escalating tension between Donald Trump and Jerome Powell and growing concern over the impact of trade tariffs. 

“‘Preemptive Cuts’ in Interest Rates are being called for by many,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on April 21. 

“With Energy Costs way down, food prices […] substantially lower, and most other ‘things’ trending down, there is virtually No Inflation,” he added. 

Trump has reiterated his call for lowering interest rates, which Powell, who has been labelled as “Mr. Too Late” and a “major loser” by the POTUS, has kept high at 4.5%. 

Source: Donald Trump

Last week, Powell took a swipe at Trump’s trade tariffs, saying they could lead to a dangerous economic mix of rising prices and slowing growth, or “stagflation.”

Trump responded with a call to fire the central bank chair, stating at the time that his “termination cannot come fast enough.”  

The Fed is expected to maintain its wait-and-see policy approach at its May 7 meeting, with interest rate markets predicting just a 13% chance of a rate cut, according to CME Fed Watch.

US dollar devaluation continues 

The US Dollar Index (DXY) — a measure of the strength of the greenback against a basket of leading currencies — has also slipped more than 10% so far this year. This week it fell to a three-year low below 98 on April 21, according to TradingView. 

“Everyone needs and wants a weaker dollar to service their dollar debts,” commented Real Vision founder and CEO Raoul Pal on April 22. “This is the purest form of global liquidity and is the largest driver of global M2 [money supply] currently,” he added.  

Related: US dollar goes ‘no-bid’ — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week 

Meanwhile, crypto markets have held on to weekend gains with total capitalization remaining at $2.83 trillion at the time of writing. 

Bitcoin (BTC) is keeping digital asset markets buoyed, hitting a four-week high of $88,500 on April 22. 

“Amid one of the most turbulent periods for global markets in years, Bitcoin is showing impressive resilience,” commented Bitfinex analysts in a recent market update. 

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The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has reversed its decision to freeze 542 million PLAY tokens in a court battle between two companies tied to the Web3 game-creation platform PLAY Network.

In an April 17 judgment, Gibraltar Supreme Court Judge John Restano undid his earlier February freeze of the tokens, finding it could have hurt the value of the tokens and that the evidence filed was insufficient to continue the freeze.

“Whilst there may be many reasons for the drop in value of the tokens, the evidence before the court suggests that these proceedings are a factor in that regard,” he wrote.

US-based Ready Makers, which operates as Ready Games, and its founder, David Bennahum, have filed a legal dispute against its Gibraltar-based subsidiary, Ready Maker (Gibraltar) Limited, and its CEO, Christina Macedon. The suit claims she took over the firm and its PLAY token that is used as a reward on the PLAY Network.

Ready Games won a freeze of the tokens in February, with the Gibraltar-based Ready Maker, operating as PLAY Network, handing them over to a court-appointed custodian.

The 542 million PLAY tokens are nearly two-thirds of its current circulating supply and are worth around $2.6 million. The token’s price has plummeted by over 97% since it launched in December, according to CoinGecko.

PLAY has sunk over the past three months to trade for fractions of a cent. Source: CoinGecko

Judge Restano said the evidence filed by Ready Games for the freeze was “far from impressive, and raises more questions than it answers.”

He added he did “not consider that this is a case where the order should be re-granted in any event,” and cited Ready Games’ failure to disclose that it was in administrative dissolution at the time of filing for the token freeze, which he called “a significant omission.”

Ready Games’ Bennahum told Cointelegraph that it has filed to lodge an appeal alongside “an urgent application with the Gibraltar Court of Appeal asking them to either stay the discharge of the original injunction or grant a new injunction” so the tokens could again be frozen pending the appeal’s outcome.

He added that his company disagreed with the court’s decision to lift the token freeze, saying that the Gibraltar-based firm was in an “alarming state.”

Ready Maker is just a “token launch vehicle” — Ready Games founder

Bennahum reiterated an earlier claim that the US-based Ready Games created Ready Maker in Gibraltar with the US company’s intellectual property and funding “specifically to serve as our token launch vehicle.”

“We maintain that Ms. Macedo and associated parties have wrongfully seized control of this entity and its assets,” he said. Judge Restano said in his judgment that Macedo disputed Bennahum’s claim, and regulatory filings purportedly show she is the sole controller and ultimate beneficial owner of the Gibraltar-based firm.

Related: Crypto gaming has mixed Q1 as deals jump, investment totals dip: DappRadar 

Ready Games had said in a February statement that its court action was to “recover control” of the Gibraltar company.

It added that a Delaware business court issued a temporary restraining order that required Ready Gibraltar to restore Ready Games’ access to the firm’s tech stack, such as “GitHub repositories, cloud systems, and domain accounts.”

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