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Cork Protocol

avoid.net/cork-protocol→22/100·82% conf.
[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.

anchored·4XUsQA…MVES

Summary

Cork Protocol is an Ethereum-based DeFi protocol offering tokenized depeg protection instruments analogous to credit default swaps, founded in 2023 by Phil Fogel and Rob Schmitt and backed by a16z CSX. On May 28, 2025, the protocol suffered a critical smart contract exploit resulting in approximately $12 million in losses, attributed to missing access controls in its Uniswap V4 hook integration. Stolen funds were subsequently laundered through Tornado Cash; a rebuilt version dubbed Cork Phoenix launched on mainnet in January 2026.

Connected Entities

1 entities
Protocols
⌂Cork Protocol
Relationships
    Have evidence about Cork Protocol?

    Timeline(6 events)

    2023

    Cork Protocol founded by Phil Fogel and Rob Schmitt.

    Crunchbase / Cork Protocol

    9 September 2024

    Cork Protocol joins a16z Crypto CSX Fall 2024 cohort and announces $5.5M seed round led by a16z CSX with OrangeDAO, Road Capital, BitGo, and Steakhouse Financial.

    CryptoSlate / Chainwire

    March 2025

    Cork Protocol public beta launches on Ethereum mainnet with Lido, EtherFi, Ethena, and Sky integrations.

    Cork Blog

    28 May 2025

    Exploit executed at approximately 11:23–11:39 UTC. Attacker drains 3,761 wstETH (~$12M) from wstETH:weETH Liquidity Vault by exploiting missing access controls in CorkHook and cross-market token contamination. Protocol pauses all markets.

    CoinDesk / CoinTelegraph / Cork Post-Mortem

    25 June 2025

    Attacker resurfaces; transfers 4,520 ETH (~$11M) to Tornado Cash in two tranches and sends 10 ETH to a Tornado Cash developer legal defense fund. On-chain messages left criticizing multiple audit firms.

    Crypto.news / Protos

    19 January 2026

    Cork Phoenix launches on Ethereum mainnet after comprehensive protocol rebuild, new audits (Quantstamp, Cantina, Sherlock, Runtime Verification), and Lido/Ethena re-integrations. Second $5.5M seed round announced.

    Web3 Research Global / Cork Blog
    Provenance & Audit Trail
    Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain17 Wayback Archives

    Decision Log

    This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (3 events). 17 of 20 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

    full audit log →version history →

    model: claude-sonnet-4-6

    generated: 6/1/2026, 5:47:20 PM

    last updated: 7/25/2026, 9:41:02 PM

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