Blockhash: Exploring The Blockchain

For episode 670 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Phil Fogel, CEO and Co-founder of Cork.DeFi has a $100B+ problem: you can't trade the risk. Insurance exists, but it's expensive, illiquid, and doesn't cover the economic chaos that actually wipes people out: depeg events, protocol runs, cascading liquidations etc. Phil Fogel, CEO and co-founder of Cork, backed by a16z crypto, Road Capital and more, explains that the system fails when risk is opaque and largely untradeable. Without tools to manage downside dynamically, stress compounds and volatility turns into contagion. Cork is his response. It is not insurance, but market-based risk infrastructure. By making risk programmable and tradable through swap tokens, participants can address stress before it cascades. Phil’s broader perspective is about market structure. DeFi will not scale safely or attract institutions until risk management functions like a market rather than a promise.