How to Revoke Token Approvals After Playing a Dead Crypto Game

17 October 2026

If a game you played has shut down, the first thing to do - before you mourn your lost time or money - is check what token approvals you left behind. Those approvals, typically granted when you first connected your wallet to the game, can let a malicious contract or a compromised game developer drain your funds later. Revoking them is a straightforward process, but it requires care, a little gas money, and a clear head.

When you approve a token for a game, you are signing a transaction that lets that game’s smart contract spend a specific amount of that token on your behalf. For many play-to-earn games, that amount is set to “unlimited” by default, meaning the contract can pull as much as it wants whenever it wants. If the game dies, that approval does not automatically die with it. The contract is still live on the blockchain, and if it is malicious, exploitable, or simply no longer maintained, it becomes a standing risk to your wallet.

The general steps are the same on most EVM-compatible chains (Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, and others): find the approval, revoke it, and verify it worked. Here is how to do that.

Step 1: identify what you approved

Before you can revoke anything, you need to know which tokens you approved and for which contracts. Most games require you to approve the game’s main contract to spend your in-game token or your base currency (like ETH or BNB). If you played multiple games, you may have multiple approvals.

You can check your approvals using a blockchain explorer or a dedicated approval checker. On Ethereum, tools like Etherscan’s “Token Approval Checker” or third-party services like Revoke.cash let you paste your wallet address and see a list of active approvals. For other chains, the equivalent explorer (Polygonscan, BscScan) has similar tools. You do not need to connect your wallet to view this - just enter your public address.

Look for any approval tied to the dead game’s contract. If you are not sure which contract that is, check the transaction history of your wallet for the approval transaction you signed at the start. It will show the contract address you approved.

Step 2: Decide Which Approvals to Revoke

You do not need to revoke everything - just the ones tied to dead or untrusted contracts. If you only played one game, the decision is simple. If you played several, revoke each one you no longer use.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Revoking an approval does not move tokens. It simply removes the contract’s permission to spend them.
• If you still hold tokens in the game’s ecosystem, revoking does not affect your balance - it affects what the contract can do with your balance.
• If you are unsure whether an approval is dangerous, err on the side of revoking. You can always grant approval again later if you ever need to (which you probably won’t, given the game is dead).

Step 3: Connect Your Wallet and Revoke

Once you have identified the approvals to revoke, go to a trusty revoking tool. Revoke.cash is the most widely used, but there are others, including native options in some wallets. The process is the same regardless of the tool:

1. Connect your wallet to the site. This is a read-only action until you sign the revocation transaction.
2. The site will load a list of your active approvals, showing the token, the spender (the game contract), and the approved amount.
3. Find the approval you want to revoke. Click the “Revoke” button next to it.
4. Your wallet will prompt you to confirm the transaction. This is a regular transaction, not an approval, so it will cost gas. The fee depends on network congestion at that moment.
5. Sign the transaction and wait for it to confirm on-chain.

One note: revoking an approval costs gas, and on some networks, that fee can be annoyingly high relative to the value of your remaining assets. If the approved token is worthless and the gas fee exceeds its value, you have a choice: pay to revoke for peace of mind, or leave it and hope nothing happens. There is no right answer. The risk is real but probabilistic.

Step 4: Verify the Revocation

After the transaction confirms, go back to the approval checker and refresh the page. The approval should no longer appear, or it should show a balance of zero. If it still shows an active approval, wait a few minutes and refresh again - blockchain explorers sometimes lag.

Do not assume the revocation worked just because your wallet said “confirmed.” Always verify.

Why this matters more than you think

A dead game contract is not an inert object. It remains live on the blockchain, and anyone can interact with it. If the game’s developers were careless, or if they turned malicious after the project collapsed, they can call the contract and drain tokens from any wallet that still has an active approval. This is not a theoretical risk - it has happened. The Ronin hack, covered elsewhere on this site, was a bridge exploit, but the principle is the same: a live contract with a vulnerability is a target.

Also, consider that approvals are often shared across contracts. Some games use proxy contracts that can be upgraded. If the game’s developers upgraded the contract to a malicious version before abandoning it, your approval might be pointing at a new, dangerous implementation. Revoking kills that link.

What if you can’t revoke?

In rare cases, the game’s contract might be unrevocable - for example, if it was designed without a revoke function. This is uncommon, but it happens. If you cannot revoke, your only options are to accept the risk or move your remaining tokens to a fresh wallet. Moving tokens costs gas and may leave the approval behind, but it severs the connection. If you are moving tokens anyway, consider moving everything you own to the new wallet, not just the game-related ones, to avoid leaving a trail.

A final thought on habits

Revoking approvals is one of those chores that feels unnecessary until it isn’t. Make it a habit to check your approvals whenever you stop playing a game - or at least every few months if you are active on-chain. The tools are free, the process takes ten minutes, and the alternative is hoping that a zombie contract never wakes up. Most of the time, it won’t. But “most of the time” is not a security strategy.

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