Cork Protocol

A programmable risk layer for onchain assets, including vault tokens, yield-bearing stablecoins, LSTs, and RWAs

 Backed by @RoadCapMgmt and @a16zcrypto CSX

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

Cork has raised $5.5M to build the missing tokenized risk infrastructure for digital assets.

Led by @RoadCapMgmt and @a16zcrypto CSX, Cork has raised from investors who recognize the market opportunity of introducing tokenized risk into the digital asset ecosystem.

[Phil Fogel ( 🦇, 🌳, 🍾) @Philfog]

https://t.co/tC4elyrh3U

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

@AgenticSummit @Philfog the new agentic king

[Agentic Finance Summit @AgenticSummit]

Agents can create risk. Agents can amplify risk. They cannot manage or transfer risk. That is the gap Cork is building for.

Phil Fogel (@philfog), Co-Founder, @CorkProtocol, on programmable risk primitives and what capital formation in agentic finance actually requires:

[Robdog 🍾 @robdogeth]

Bear markets are when these kinds of lists gets built

My top 2: insurance for vault deposits and onchain reputation for borrowers/lenders

One thing missing from this list: risk primitives for agents

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

If you're betting on agentic finance, watch this 🥵

@Philfog hits the stage in 10

[Agentic Finance Summit @AgenticSummit]

Agentic Summit 2026 https://t.co/8fUWhz77Ci

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

@AgenticSummit

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

@Philfog @Celo @selfxyz @AragonProject @zeroshadow_io @CurveFinance @Uniswap @townsapp @hedera @EthereumDenver @CoinTracker love the lego idea!

[Phil Fogel ( 🦇, 🌳, 🍾) @Philfog]

Keynoting at @AgenticSummit, hosted by @Microsoft in NYC tomorrow at 4PM ET

Agents are already managing risk onchain but their only tool is exit, and when that's everyone's only tool it turns into a stampede

Cork is building the toolkit they don't have yet

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

Liquidity used to be something you either kept idle or didn't have.
Our partnership with @Agglayer's Vault Bridge proved liquidity on demand as a solution, instead.

This enabled Vault Bridge the opportunity to utilize their assets to earn yield in Morpho, without stressing that movement on the bridge would create a liquidity crunch.
More earn opportunity for Vault Bridge and more peace of mind for all. Risk managed.

[Polygon | POL @0xPolygon]

Agglayer's Vault Bridge creates yield on bridged assets instead of letting them sit idle.

Cork Protocol's external liquidity buffer backs withdrawal capacity so capital stays deployed.

Two stress events, with every withdrawal served. See the case study:

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

DeFi TVL fell 24% in 2026, RWAs grew 38%

That divergence is the whole thesis from @robdogeth, @borjaneira_, and Bryan Choe (a Cork x @RWA_xyz collab)

[CoinMarketCap @CoinMarketCap]

OpEd: 🗣️ Tokenized RWAs will thrive during the next crypto downturn because their yield is anchored to real economic activity, not crypto leverage, argue Cork's Rob Schmitt, researcher Borja Neira, and RWA.​xyz's Bryan Choe.

https://t.co/CTgKlvInhi

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

https://t.co/6UN1P3GGyG

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

"DeFi yields are a function of leverage demand. Self-reinforcing on the way up. Self-defeating on the way down."

New @CoinMarketCap piece from @robdogeth on why tokenized RWAs break that pattern:
https://t.co/30F5EXt8Gm

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

We sit next to auditors and security researchers all year. Here’s what’s happening: AI is rapidly increasing the speed at which vulnerabilities can be detected and exploited. The gap between code being shipped and code being broken is shrinking.

Code doesn’t have time anymore to be constantly re-evaluated and patched once something is live.

[Polygon | POL @0xPolygon]

Agglayer's Vault Bridge creates yield on bridged assets instead of letting them sit idle.

Cork Protocol's external liquidity buffer backs withdrawal capacity so capital stays deployed.

Two stress events, with every withdrawal served. See the case study:

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

@0xPolygon Idle capital is the tax

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

At The Capital Summit, @Philfog ran through five recent failures (Drift, Stream Finance, LayerZero, Kelp, Aave) and asked @itsbhaji whether it's one root cause or many.

Her read: AI is accelerating exploit discovery, and audit-first DeFi can't keep up.

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

Loops aren't risky because they leverage exposure, they're risky because they leverage the assumption that liquidity will be there when you really need it. It rarely is.

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

https://t.co/SdC2IekuV2

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

It cost $18,000 for VaultBridge to put their remaining idle cash to work but keep it protected with Cork.

The alternative was nearly $40k in foregone yield.

[Cork Protocol @Corkprotocol]

A month ago, $6-10B tried to leave Aave, driving 99.87% utilization for four days

The new fix: lower the ceiling from 92% to 87%
Same setup, slightly smaller buffer

Memory is short