// GLOSSARY -- AGENTIC FINANCE
What is a Cross-Chain Spending Policy?
Consistent financial rules for an agent across multiple blockchains — preventing circumvention of per-chain limits by spreading transactions.
WHY IT MATTERS
Agents operate across chains — USDC on Base, DeFi on Ethereum, bridging to Arbitrum. Without cross-chain policies, per-chain limits can be bypassed.
Tracks cumulative spending: $5K on Base + $5K on Ethereum = full $10K budget, not $10K per chain.
Requires centralized engine with visibility across all chains for consolidated evaluation.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
PolicyLayer enforces consistent policies regardless of chain — one policy governs total activity across all supported networks.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How does cross-chain tracking work?
PolicyLayer aggregates spending data from all chains the agent operates on, evaluating rules against the consolidated view in real-time.
What about bridging?
Bridge transactions are tracked as spending events. PolicyLayer monitors both the source chain outflow and destination chain inflow.
Latency across chains?
PolicyLayer maintains local caches synchronized across chains. Cross-chain policy evaluation adds minimal latency over single-chain evaluation.