Crypto security advice often focuses on dramatic threats, but most everyday losses come from mundane hygiene failures: a token approval granted months ago to a site that later turns malicious, a wallet connected to a phishing site during a busy afternoon, or a device whose software has not been updated in a year. Wallet hygiene is the routine maintenance that prevents those slow failures, and like dental hygiene, it works best as a regular habit rather than an emergency response. This checklist takes about 20 minutes a month and covers the areas that matter most.

Every time you interact with a decentralised app, you grant it permission to move some of your tokens, and many apps request unlimited approval for convenience. Unlimited approvals are dangerous because a compromised or malicious contract can later drain your full balance of that token without further confirmation. Once a month, open a reputable approval-revocation tool, review every active approval across your wallets, and revoke anything you no longer use or anything granted to unfamiliar contracts. For apps you still use, consider replacing unlimited approvals with limited ones set to the amount you actually transact.

Pay special attention to approvals on tokens you hold in large amounts and to approvals granted during airdrop claims or limited-time events, which are common phishing vectors. If you ever interacted with a site you later suspect, revoke its approvals immediately and move funds to a fresh wallet if the exposure was significant. Approval hygiene is unglamorous, but it is the single highest-impact routine in wallet security, because it closes doors you forgot you had opened.

Review your wallet's connected sites monthly and disconnect anything you do not actively use, because a connected site can prompt transactions and, in some cases, exploit stale sessions. Verify the network before every transaction: sending tokens on the wrong network is a leading cause of loss, and wallets that auto-switch networks on a site's request can be tricked into doing so. Keep a mental list of the networks you actually use, remove custom network entries you added for one-off experiments, and double-check the network name and chain ID when adding a new one.

On devices, keep wallet software and browser extensions updated, run reputable security software, and avoid installing wallet software from links in messages or search ads, which frequently lead to impersonator apps. Use a dedicated browser profile or device for crypto where practical, separate from everyday browsing, to reduce exposure to malicious extensions and phishing pages. Enable all available protections on your wallet, such as transaction simulation that previews what a transaction will actually do, and read those previews carefully before signing anything.

Separate your funds by purpose: a hot wallet with small balances for daily interactions and airdrops, and cold storage for holdings you do not need to touch. That separation means a compromised hot wallet costs you a small amount, not your portfolio. Verify your seed-phrase backup annually, without exposing it digitally, by checking that the physical copy is intact and legible and stored where you expect it to be. Never test recovery by typing the phrase into a website or app you have not verified as legitimate.

Make hygiene a calendar event: on the first weekend of each month, spend 20 minutes revoking stale approvals, disconnecting unused sites, reviewing connected networks, and checking for software updates. Log what you revoked and disconnected, so patterns emerge over time. Wallet hygiene will not make you immune to sophisticated attacks, but it removes the low-hanging vulnerabilities that account for most losses, and it builds the careful habits that protect you when a genuinely novel threat appears.

Run the monthly checklist: revoke stale approvals, disconnect unused sites, verify networks before transacting, keep software updated, and separate hot and cold funds. Twenty minutes a month of boring maintenance is what keeps a wallet safe for years.