How to check your token approvals
Every time you use a decentralized app, it usually asks for an approval: permission to move a token from your wallet. Those permissions live on-chain and persist until you revoke them. Here is how to see them.
1. On a block explorer
Open your address on the chain’s explorer (Etherscan, Basescan, BscScan and so on) and look at the token-approval or “read contract” tools. You are looking for allowance(owner, spender) — the amount a spender can still move for you.
2. With a revoke tool
Revoke tools scan your address and list approvals in a readable table, then let you set them to zero. They are useful for a one-off cleanup.
3. Continuously, with Shingan
A one-off check tells you today’s state. The risk is what appears tomorrow — a new approval you sign on a site you didn’t scrutinise. Shingan watches your wallets across six chains and alerts you on Telegram the moment a new approval lands, flagging unlimited allowances and risky spenders.
What “dangerous” looks like
- An unlimited allowance to a contract you don’t recognise.
- An approval to a spender flagged by threat intelligence.
- An old allowance to an app you stopped using.
- An NFT
approveForAllto an unknown operator.