diff --git a/tests/block_test_util.go b/tests/block_test_util.go
index 657cb55f94..ab3a0e3b75 100644
--- a/tests/block_test_util.go
+++ b/tests/block_test_util.go
@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@ func (t *BlockTest) createTestBlockChain(config *params.ChainConfig, snapshotter
 		},
 		StatelessSelfValidation: witness,
 		NoPrefetch:              true,
+		PrefetchWorkers:         100, // note: this is totally unrelated to NoPrefetch, just for BAL execution
 	}
 	if snapshotter {
 		options.SnapshotLimit = 1