Connecting and Approving Are Different

A basic wallet connection normally lets a site view your public address. The more important risks begin with permissions and signatures.

Swaps, staking, NFT sales and airdrop claims may request Approve, Permit or Set Approval for All. A malicious or compromised spender can use an active permission to move the affected token or NFT.

What Is an Unlimited Approval?

An unlimited allowance permits a contract to spend an effectively unrestricted amount of a token. It saves repeated approval transactions, but leaves a larger exposure if the contract, front end or signing flow is compromised.

⚠️ Prefer a fixed allowance when practical, reject requests you do not understand and never use a long-term storage wallet on an unfamiliar site.

When Should You Revoke Permissions?

  • After completing a one-time airdrop, mint, swap or staking task.
  • After connecting to an unfamiliar DApp.
  • When you find a spender or allowance you do not recognize.
  • After a project reports an exploit, phishing campaign or shutdown.
  • Before continuing to use an old hot wallet for meaningful funds.

How to Check and Revoke Approvals

General Steps
  1. Open a trusted approval manager, such as the wallet built-in tool, a block explorer approval page or a well-known revocation service.
  2. Verify the domain independently and connect the wallet you want to inspect.
  3. Select the correct network, such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum or Base.
  4. Review which contracts can spend each token or NFT and the allowance size.
  5. Revoke unknown, obsolete or unnecessarily large permissions.

Does Revoking Cost Gas?

Yes. A revocation is an on-chain transaction, so it requires the network gas token: for example ETH on Ethereum, BNB on BNB Chain and the relevant native token on other networks.

Gas cost can be weighed against the amount exposed, but unknown approvals on a wallet holding meaningful assets deserve prompt attention.

Separate Wallets Reduce the Damage

  • Main wallet: routine transfers and limited trusted use.
  • Interaction wallet: small funds for DApps, swaps, NFTs and airdrops.
  • Hardware wallet: long-term holdings with minimal DApp exposure.
🚨 Revoking approvals is not enough if a seed phrase or private key may have leaked. Create a completely new wallet and move remaining assets immediately; do not keep using the compromised recovery phrase.

Read next: how to separate main and interaction wallets, crypto wallet basics, seed phrases, private keys and keystores.