diff --git a/core/blockchain.go b/core/blockchain.go
index 6667f64911..cb91455dcb 100644
--- a/core/blockchain.go
+++ b/core/blockchain.go
@@ -1856,7 +1856,7 @@ func (bc *BlockChain) insertChain(chain types.Blocks, setHead bool, makeWitness
 		// If we have a followup block, run that against the current state to pre-cache
 		// transactions and probabilistically some of the account/storage trie nodes.
 		var followupInterrupt atomic.Bool
-		if !bc.cacheConfig.TrieCleanNoPrefetch {
+		if !bc.cacheConfig.TrieCleanNoPrefetch && block.Transactions().Len() > 0 {
 			if followup, err := it.peek(); followup != nil && err == nil {
 				throwaway, _ := state.New(parent.Root, bc.statedb)