diff --git a/src/rpc/mining.cpp b/src/rpc/mining.cpp
--- a/src/rpc/mining.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/mining.cpp
@@ -576,6 +576,7 @@
                 if (g_best_block_cv.wait_until(lock, checktxtime) ==
                     std::cv_status::timeout) {
                     // Timeout: Check transactions for update
+                    // without holding ::mempool.cs to avoid deadlocks
                     if (g_mempool.GetTransactionsUpdated() !=
                         nTransactionsUpdatedLastLP) {
                         break;
diff --git a/src/txmempool.h b/src/txmempool.h
--- a/src/txmempool.h
+++ b/src/txmempool.h
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #include <boost/multi_index_container.hpp>
 #include <boost/signals2/signal.hpp>
 
+#include <atomic>
 #include <map>
 #include <set>
 #include <string>
@@ -468,7 +469,7 @@
     //! Value n means that n times in 2^32 we check.
     uint32_t nCheckFrequency GUARDED_BY(cs);
     //! Used by getblocktemplate to trigger CreateNewBlock() invocation
-    unsigned int nTransactionsUpdated;
+    std::atomic<uint32_t> nTransactionsUpdated;
 
     //! sum of all mempool tx's sizes.
     uint64_t totalTxSize;
diff --git a/src/txmempool.cpp b/src/txmempool.cpp
--- a/src/txmempool.cpp
+++ b/src/txmempool.cpp
@@ -405,12 +405,10 @@
 }
 
 unsigned int CTxMemPool::GetTransactionsUpdated() const {
-    LOCK(cs);
     return nTransactionsUpdated;
 }
 
 void CTxMemPool::AddTransactionsUpdated(unsigned int n) {
-    LOCK(cs);
     nTransactionsUpdated += n;
 }