Token Approvals Need Separate Rules in AI Agent Wallets

AI agents interacting with blockchain applications inherit broad token approval permissions under the ERC-20 standard, which separates the act of authorizing spending from the act of transferring funds. This creates a dangerous attack surface: a valid signature from a legitimate agent can be weaponized to approve malicious token spending without triggering an immediate, visible transfer. The core problem is that current wallet security models treat an agent's ability to act and the authority granted by its actions as equivalent, when they must be distinct. Without granular, context-aware approval rules — especially in account abstraction architectures — a single compromised or manipulated agent action can drain funds silently. New authorization frameworks must enforce least-privilege at the smart contract and wallet policy level, not just at the agent authentication layer.