diff --git a/backend/src/api/mempool.ts b/backend/src/api/mempool.ts
index b9b648012..85b6e6101 100644
--- a/backend/src/api/mempool.ts
+++ b/backend/src/api/mempool.ts
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ class Mempool {
     return txTimes;
   }
 
-  public async $updateMempool(transactions: string[]): Promise<void> {
+  public async $updateMempool(transactions: string[], pollRate: number): Promise<void> {
     logger.debug(`Updating mempool...`);
 
     // warn if this run stalls the main loop for more than 2 minutes
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ class Mempool {
           }
         }
 
-        if (Date.now() - intervalTimer > 5_000) {
+        if (Date.now() - intervalTimer > Math.max(pollRate * 2, 5_000)) {
           if (this.inSync) {
             // Break and restart mempool loop if we spend too much time processing
             // new transactions that may lead to falling behind on block height
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ class Mempool {
             if (Math.floor(progress) < 100) {
               loadingIndicators.setProgress('mempool', progress);
             }
-            intervalTimer = Date.now()
+            intervalTimer = Date.now();
           }
         }
       }
diff --git a/backend/src/index.ts b/backend/src/index.ts
index 222537d0b..185a47067 100644
--- a/backend/src/index.ts
+++ b/backend/src/index.ts
@@ -188,14 +188,14 @@ class Server {
       }
       const newMempool = await bitcoinApi.$getRawMempool();
       const numHandledBlocks = await blocks.$updateBlocks();
+      const pollRate = config.MEMPOOL.POLL_RATE_MS * (indexer.indexerRunning ? 10 : 1);
       if (numHandledBlocks === 0) {
-        await memPool.$updateMempool(newMempool);
+        await memPool.$updateMempool(newMempool, pollRate);
       }
       indexer.$run();
 
       // rerun immediately if we skipped the mempool update, otherwise wait POLL_RATE_MS
       const elapsed = Date.now() - start;
-      const pollRate = config.MEMPOOL.POLL_RATE_MS * (indexer.indexerRunning ? 10 : 1);
       const remainingTime = Math.max(0, pollRate - elapsed);
       setTimeout(this.runMainUpdateLoop.bind(this), numHandledBlocks > 0 ? 0 : remainingTime);
       this.backendRetryCount = 0;