Socket Protocol
Last changed 2026-10-14 · Re-researched — Re-researched in full by the investigator agent; the text was rewritten from new research. Version history →
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anchored·33vHoH…6ajCSummary
Socket Protocol (also marketed through its consumer product Bungee Exchange) is a cross-chain interoperability and liquidity-routing protocol founded in 2021 by Vaibhav Chellani and Rishabh Khurana. On 16 January 2024 a newly added route module in its SocketGateway contract, which used unvalidated user-supplied calldata, was exploited, draining approximately $3.3 million from wallets that had granted token approvals to the gateway. Socket recovered 1,032 ETH (about $2.3 million) from the attacker and committed to cover the remaining roughly $1.1 million itself; the protocol resumed operations the next day and was reported as operational in April 2026.
Connected Entities
8 entities · 60 linked investigations- Ethereum→mentioned with→Coinbase(60%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Synthetix→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- Socket Protocol→mentioned with→Bungee(80%)
- Socket Protocol→mentioned with→Arbitrum(60%)
- Socket Protocol→mentioned with→Coinbase(80%)
- Socket Protocol→mentioned with→Ethereum(75%)
- Coinbase→mentioned with→ZachXBT(70%)
- Bungee→mentioned with→Socket Protocol(80%)
- Bungee→mentioned with→Polymarket(60%)
- + 5 more
Timeline(12 events)
2021
Socket Protocol founded by Vaibhav Chellani and Rishabh Khurana, building on prior Biconomy infrastructure experience.
CoinDeskSeptember 2023
Socket raises a $5 million strategic round co-led by Coinbase Ventures and Framework Ventures (announced 6 September 2023).
CoinDesk2024
CertiK publishes a post-incident technical analysis identifying incomplete input validation as the root cause.
CertiKJanuary 2024
13 January 2024: admin transaction adds the vulnerable WrappedTokenSwapperImpl route to the SocketGateway contract, three days before the exploit.
CertiK Incident AnalysisJanuary 2024
16 January 2024: attacker exploits unvalidated calldata in the new route module (approximately 19:03 UTC), draining approximately $3.3 million from wallets with infinite approvals to SocketGateway; wallet count reported as ~230 or ~700 depending on source.
CertiK Incident Analysis / The BlockJanuary 2024
16 January 2024: Socket disables the vulnerable route and pauses contracts within approximately 14 minutes of the exploit being detected.
HalbornJanuary 2024
16 January 2024: Socket admin wallet sends an on-chain message to the attacker initiating bounty negotiation and requesting return of funds within 12 hours.
CryptoBriefingJanuary 2024
17 January 2024: Socket and Bungee Exchange resume normal operations after patching the vulnerable module.
CoinDeskJanuary 2024
23 January 2024: Socket announces recovery of 1,032 ETH (~$2.3M) from the attacker and commits to cover the remaining ~$1.1M shortfall so that all 232 affected users are made whole.
The BlockJanuary 2024
23 January 2024: compensation portal at recovery.socket.tech launched; users claim by signing an on-chain message without granting new approvals.
BlockworksApril 2026
Bungee Exchange reports all services operational on its public status page (27 April 2026).
Bungee status pageDecision Log
- slot 445504185 · hash GT79wzcGYshQ5DVHyainxQBih1m718RazCHUfFnk1ZMs
- slot 425210649 · hash 2u9YX1YUV7MrkaAC7yDygrSyKdQh1qSWa5q1sLHtNuA8
- slot 425210646 · hash CfSXVh55BxJ8wfExw5L9RpiHgz74oiTcxrHv2DU3giYL
- slot 423324629 · hash EW8h9F2cE4G6Chw9v8cSYM3eJqafTPExCJaQdPajaYKd
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (4 decisions). 27 of 29 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-merge-writer
generated: 5/31/2026, 6:59:58 AM
last updated: 10/14/2026, 12:24:11 AM
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