diff --git a/cmd/geth/config.go b/cmd/geth/config.go
index fc1c5f78a5..36d9b068fa 100644
--- a/cmd/geth/config.go
+++ b/cmd/geth/config.go
@@ -255,6 +255,16 @@ func makeFullNode(ctx *cli.Context) *node.Node {
 		}
 	}
 
+	cfg.Eth.BlockingPrefetch = ctx.Bool(utils.BlockingPrefetchFlag.Name)
+	if ctx.IsSet(utils.PrefetchWorkersFlag.Name) {
+		prefetchWorkers := ctx.Uint(utils.PrefetchWorkersFlag.Name)
+		if prefetchWorkers == 0 {
+			prefetchWorkers = uint(runtime.NumCPU())
+			log.Warn(fmt.Sprintf("invalid value for --bal.prefetchworkers. got 0.  sanitizing to %d", prefetchWorkers))
+		}
+		cfg.Eth.PrefetchWorkers = prefetchWorkers
+	}
+
 	// Start metrics export if enabled
 	utils.SetupMetrics(&cfg.Metrics)
 
diff --git a/cmd/geth/main.go b/cmd/geth/main.go
index 56ec5b1541..9b865e584a 100644
--- a/cmd/geth/main.go
+++ b/cmd/geth/main.go
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ var (
 		utils.BeaconCheckpointFileFlag,
 		utils.LogSlowBlockFlag,
 		utils.PrefetchWorkersFlag,
-		utils.BlockingPrefetch,
+		utils.BlockingPrefetchFlag,
 	}, utils.NetworkFlags, utils.DatabaseFlags)
 
 	rpcFlags = []cli.Flag{
diff --git a/cmd/utils/flags.go b/cmd/utils/flags.go
index a1f15d52db..c5cbc39d56 100644
--- a/cmd/utils/flags.go
+++ b/cmd/utils/flags.go
@@ -721,7 +721,7 @@ var (
 		Category: flags.MiscCategory,
 	}
 
-	BlockingPrefetch = &cli.BoolFlag{
+	BlockingPrefetchFlag = &cli.BoolFlag{
 		Name:     "bal.blockingprefetch",
 		Usage:    "only relevant when executing in parallel with a BAL: if true, the prefetcher will block tx/state-root calculation until all scheduled fetching tasks have completed.",
 		Category: flags.MiscCategory,
@@ -2474,7 +2474,7 @@ func MakeChain(ctx *cli.Context, stack *node.Node, readonly bool) (*core.BlockCh
 		NodeFullValueCheckpoint: uint32(ctx.Uint(TrienodeHistoryFullValueCheckpointFlag.Name)),
 
 		PrefetchWorkers:  int(ctx.Uint(PrefetchWorkersFlag.Name)),
-		BlockingPrefetch: ctx.Bool(BlockingPrefetch.Name),
+		BlockingPrefetch: ctx.Bool(BlockingPrefetchFlag.Name),
 		// Disable transaction indexing/unindexing.
 		TxLookupLimit: -1,
 
diff --git a/eth/backend.go b/eth/backend.go
index 51dc7ef2e0..c9993566be 100644
--- a/eth/backend.go
+++ b/eth/backend.go
@@ -282,6 +282,8 @@ func New(stack *node.Node, config *ethconfig.Config) (*Ethereum, error) {
 	}
 	options.Overrides = &overrides
 	options.BALExecutionMode = config.BALExecutionMode
+	options.BlockingPrefetch = config.BlockingPrefetch
+	options.PrefetchWorkers = int(config.PrefetchWorkers)
 
 	eth.blockchain, err = core.NewBlockChain(chainDb, config.Genesis, eth.engine, options)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/eth/ethconfig/config.go b/eth/ethconfig/config.go
index e0b6c978e9..6fc951f95b 100644
--- a/eth/ethconfig/config.go
+++ b/eth/ethconfig/config.go
@@ -213,6 +213,8 @@ type Config struct {
 	RangeLimit uint64 `toml:",omitempty"`
 
 	BALExecutionMode bal.BALExecutionMode
+	PrefetchWorkers  uint
+	BlockingPrefetch bool
 }
 
 // CreateConsensusEngine creates a consensus engine for the given chain config.