diff --git a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/sparse_trie.rs b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/sparse_trie.rs
index 1f67db4e2e..6e566c51b5 100644
--- a/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/sparse_trie.rs
+++ b/crates/engine/tree/src/tree/payload_processor/sparse_trie.rs
@@ -416,7 +416,9 @@ where
                     let update = match message {
                         Ok(m) => m,
                         Err(_) => {
-                            break
+                            return Err(ParallelStateRootError::Other(
+                                "updates channel disconnected before state root calculation".to_string(),
+                            ))
                         }
                     };