diff --git a/zebra-state/src/service.rs b/zebra-state/src/service.rs
index c84de0b0d95..f7092282547 100644
--- a/zebra-state/src/service.rs
+++ b/zebra-state/src/service.rs
@@ -680,7 +680,7 @@ impl Service<Request> for StateService {
             }
 
             // Uses pending_utxos and queued_blocks in the StateService.
-            // Directly uses the shared NonFinalizedState in the ReadStateService.
+            // If the UTXO isn't in the queued blocks, runs concurrently using the ReadStateService.
             Request::AwaitUtxo(outpoint) => {
                 metrics::counter!(
                     "state.requests",
@@ -693,10 +693,13 @@ impl Service<Request> for StateService {
 
                 // Prepare the AwaitUtxo future from PendingUxtos.
                 let response_fut = self.pending_utxos.queue(outpoint);
+                // Only instrument `response_fut`, the ReadStateService already
+                // instruments its requests with the same span.
                 let span = Span::current();
                 let response_fut = response_fut.instrument(span).boxed();
 
-                // Check the non-finalized block queue.
+                // Check the non-finalized block queue outside the returned future,
+                // so we can access mutable state fields.
                 if let Some(utxo) = self.queued_blocks.utxo(&outpoint) {
                     self.pending_utxos.respond(&outpoint, utxo);
 
@@ -712,38 +715,41 @@ impl Service<Request> for StateService {
                 // This creates a rare race condition, but it doesn't seem to happen much in practice.
                 // See #5126 for details.
 
-                // Send a request to the ReadStateService, to get UTXOs from the finalized chain.
+                // Manually send a request to the ReadStateService,
+                // to get UTXOs from any non-finalized chain or the finalized chain.
                 let read_service = self.read_service.clone();
 
-                // Optional TODO:
-                //  - make pending_utxos.respond() async using a channel,
-                //    so we can use ReadRequest::ChainUtxo here, and avoid a block_in_place().
+                // Run the request in an async block, so we can await the response.
+                async move {
+                    let req = ReadRequest::AnyChainUtxo(outpoint);
 
-                // Check any non-finalized chain, and the finalized chain.
-                let span = Span::current();
-                let utxo = tokio::task::block_in_place(move || {
-                    span.in_scope(move || {
-                        read_service.non_finalized_state_receiver.with_watch_data(
-                            |non_finalized_state| {
-                                read::any_utxo(non_finalized_state, &read_service.db, outpoint)
-                            },
-                        )
-                    })
-                });
+                    let rsp = read_service.oneshot(req).await?;
 
-                if let Some(utxo) = utxo {
-                    self.pending_utxos.respond(&outpoint, utxo);
+                    // Optional TODO:
+                    //  - make pending_utxos.respond() async using a channel,
+                    //    so we can respond to all waiting requests here
+                    //
+                    // This change is not required for correctness, because:
+                    // - any waiting requests should have returned when the block was sent to the state
+                    // - otherwise, the request returns immediately if:
+                    //   - the block is in the non-finalized queue, or
+                    //   - the block is in any non-finalized chain or the finalized state
+                    //
+                    // And if the block is in the finalized queue,
+                    // that's rare enough that a retry is ok.
+                    if let ReadResponse::AnyChainUtxo(Some(utxo)) = rsp {
+                        // We got a UTXO, so we replace the response future with the result own.
+                        timer.finish(module_path!(), line!(), "AwaitUtxo/any-chain");
+
+                        return Ok(Response::Utxo(utxo));
+                    }
 
-                    // We're finished, the returned future gets the UTXO from the respond() channel.
-                    timer.finish(module_path!(), line!(), "AwaitUtxo/any-chain");
+                    // We're finished, but the returned future is waiting on the respond() channel.
+                    timer.finish(module_path!(), line!(), "AwaitUtxo/waiting");
 
-                    return response_fut;
+                    response_fut.await
                 }
-
-                // We're finished, but the returned future is waiting on the respond() channel.
-                timer.finish(module_path!(), line!(), "AwaitUtxo/waiting");
-
-                response_fut
+                .boxed()
             }
 
             // TODO: add a name() method to Request, and combine all the generic read requests