diff --git a/core/rawdb/accessors_skipped_txs.go b/core/rawdb/accessors_skipped_txs.go
index 9baccf99b7f3..0e1206d645b9 100644
--- a/core/rawdb/accessors_skipped_txs.go
+++ b/core/rawdb/accessors_skipped_txs.go
@@ -86,15 +86,17 @@ type SkippedTransactionV2 struct {
 
 // writeSkippedTransaction writes a skipped transaction to the database.
 func writeSkippedTransaction(db ethdb.KeyValueWriter, tx *types.Transaction, traces *types.BlockTrace, reason string, blockNumber uint64, blockHash *common.Hash) {
+	var err error
 	// workaround: RLP decoding fails if this is nil
 	if blockHash == nil {
 		blockHash = &common.Hash{}
 	}
-	b, err := json.Marshal(traces)
-	if err != nil {
-		log.Crit("Failed to json marshal skipped transaction", "hash", tx.Hash().String(), "err", err)
+	stx := SkippedTransactionV2{Tx: tx, Reason: reason, BlockNumber: blockNumber, BlockHash: blockHash}
+	if traces != nil {
+		if stx.TracesBytes, err = json.Marshal(traces); err != nil {
+			log.Crit("Failed to json marshal skipped transaction", "hash", tx.Hash().String(), "err", err)
+		}
 	}
-	stx := SkippedTransactionV2{Tx: tx, TracesBytes: b, Reason: reason, BlockNumber: blockNumber, BlockHash: blockHash}
 	bytes, err := rlp.EncodeToBytes(stx)
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Crit("Failed to RLP encode skipped transaction", "hash", tx.Hash().String(), "err", err)
diff --git a/eth/api.go b/eth/api.go
index 5ab334fe478e..95b915444a7f 100644
--- a/eth/api.go
+++ b/eth/api.go
@@ -738,9 +738,11 @@ func (api *ScrollAPI) GetSkippedTransaction(ctx context.Context, hash common.Has
 	rpcTx.SkipBlockNumber = (*hexutil.Big)(new(big.Int).SetUint64(stx.BlockNumber))
 	rpcTx.SkipBlockHash = stx.BlockHash
 	if len(stx.TracesBytes) != 0 {
-		if err := json.Unmarshal(stx.TracesBytes, rpcTx.Traces); err != nil {
+		traces := &types.BlockTrace{}
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(stx.TracesBytes, traces); err != nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("fail to Unmarshal traces for skipped tx, hash: %s, err: %w", hash.String(), err)
 		}
+		rpcTx.Traces = traces
 	}
 	return &rpcTx, nil
 }
diff --git a/params/version.go b/params/version.go
index 195520edbf4a..0e507994badc 100644
--- a/params/version.go
+++ b/params/version.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import (
 const (
 	VersionMajor = 4         // Major version component of the current release
 	VersionMinor = 4         // Minor version component of the current release
-	VersionPatch = 1         // Patch version component of the current release
+	VersionPatch = 2         // Patch version component of the current release
 	VersionMeta  = "sepolia" // Version metadata to append to the version string
 )