No, they are not the same, and mistaking "disconnect" for "revoke approval" is why many people lose assets. Disconnecting only prevents a DApp from seeing your address, while approving allows it to spend your funds—the latter is the real source of risk.
1. First, Understand What Each Action Actually Does
Disconnect
When you click "Disconnect" in your wallet, you are simply telling the website that it can no longer read your public address and balance. The DApp interface will log you out as a result.
However, the approval record remains on-chain. The approve() transaction you signed is an independent, permanently executable record on the blockchain. Disconnecting does not revoke it.
Revoke Approval
This is an actual on-chain transaction whose purpose is to tell the contract: "You are no longer allowed to move my tokens." Once the revocation is successful, that approval record is erased from the chain, and the counterparty can no longer transfer your assets using that approval.
Prerequisite: You have previously signed an approval (Approve) transaction on a DApp and now want to completely remove its permissions.
2. Three Common Mistakes
① Only disconnecting without revoking
This is the most widespread misconception. Many people think they are safe after disconnecting, but the approval still exists. If that DApp is hacked or was malicious from the start, it can use the previously granted approval to transfer your tokens even after you disconnect.
② Judging by surface actions without checking the approval list
Some users think, "I finished using it and disconnected, so I'm fine." But the contract addresses you approved remain on your approval list permanently. Malicious approvals do not disappear simply because you stopped visiting the website.
③ Blindly clicking "revoke" when seeing an unfamiliar approval
You see an address you don't recognize in your approval list and immediately click "Revoke." However, if that approval itself is fake (a scammer's fabricated display), the high gas fee you pay for the revocation may go straight into the scammer's pocket. This type of scam does not steal your tokens but tricks you into repeatedly paying gas fees by inducing you to "revoke."
3. Correct Steps
Step 1: Check your approval list
What to do: Use a tool like Revoke.cash, connect your wallet, and view all current approval records.
How to do it: Sort by time from newest to oldest, and focus on approvals you recently signed, those you don't recognize, or those with an "unlimited" allowance.
When is this step complete: You have confirmed which approvals are in normal use and which need to be dealt with.
Step 2: Revoke unnecessary approvals
What to do: Find the entry you need to remove in the approval list, click "Revoke," and send an on-chain transaction.
How to do it: Revoking is an on-chain transaction that requires a gas fee. Note that a normal revocation gas fee should be similar to a regular transfer. If the fee is abnormally high (e.g., dozens of dollars), you might be facing a scam—pause and investigate first.
When is this step complete: After the on-chain transaction is confirmed, the approval entry disappears from the list.
Step 3: Handling high-risk situations
What to do: If you suspect your private key has been leaked, or if there is a malicious approval in your list that you cannot fully identify, revocation alone may not be enough.
How to do it: Immediately create a new wallet and transfer all assets to it. Abandon the old wallet completely.
When is this step complete: All assets have been moved out, and the old wallet balance is zero.
Common failure reason: When vague names like "BEP-20 TOKEN*" appear in the approval list, it is easy to be misled into thinking it is an "unknown approval" and panic. In reality, this may be a fabricated display effect created by scammers to trick you into paying high gas fees.
Risk reminder: Hardware wallets do not provide extra protection against approval vulnerabilities—because approvals do not require stealing your private key, only that you once signed a transaction. Additionally, if your wallet address is being "swept" by a malicious contract (a bot monitors and transfers out any incoming assets), it means your private key has already been compromised. Revoking approvals cannot save you; the only solution is to abandon that address entirely.
How to Confirm You've Done It Right
Scan your wallet address again on Revoke.cash. If the approvals you were concerned about have disappeared from the list, the revocation has taken effect. If you replaced your wallet entirely, verify that the new address has an empty approval list and stop using the old address.
