diff --git a/core/state/state_object.go b/core/state/state_object.go
index 8eea609f03..8725eafa3e 100644
--- a/core/state/state_object.go
+++ b/core/state/state_object.go
@@ -314,9 +314,12 @@ func (s *stateObject) updateTrie() (Trie, error) {
 	}
 	// Retrieve a pretecher populated trie, or fall back to the database
 	tr := s.getPrefetchedTrie()
-	if tr == nil {
-		var err error
+	if tr != nil {
+		// Prefetcher returned a live trie, swap it out for the current one
+		s.trie = tr
+	} else {
 		// Fetcher not running or empty trie, fallback to the database trie
+		var err error
 		tr, err = s.getTrie()
 		if err != nil {
 			s.db.setError(err)