diff --git a/packages/beacon-node/src/chain/stateCache/persistentCheckpointsCache.ts b/packages/beacon-node/src/chain/stateCache/persistentCheckpointsCache.ts
index 7fb67a75867..d0540e507df 100644
--- a/packages/beacon-node/src/chain/stateCache/persistentCheckpointsCache.ts
+++ b/packages/beacon-node/src/chain/stateCache/persistentCheckpointsCache.ts
@@ -151,12 +151,11 @@ export class PersistentCheckpointStateCache implements CheckpointStateCache {
       await this.datastore.init();
     }
     const persistedKeys = await this.datastore.readKeys();
-    for (const persistedKey of persistedKeys) {
-      const cp = datastoreKeyToCheckpoint(persistedKey);
-      this.cache.set(toCacheKey(cp), {type: CacheItemType.persisted, value: persistedKey});
-      this.epochIndex.getOrDefault(cp.epoch).add(toRootHex(cp.root));
-    }
-    this.logger.info("Loaded persisted checkpoint states from the last run", {
+    // all checkpoint states from the last run are not trusted, remove them
+    // otherwise if we have a bad checkpoint state from the last run, the node get stucked
+    // this was found during mekong devnet, see https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/pull/7255
+    await Promise.all(persistedKeys.map((key) => this.datastore.remove(key)));
+    this.logger.info("Removed persisted checkpoint states from the last run", {
       count: persistedKeys.length,
       maxEpochsInMemory: this.maxEpochsInMemory,
     });
diff --git a/packages/state-transition/src/epoch/processPendingDeposits.ts b/packages/state-transition/src/epoch/processPendingDeposits.ts
index e00e1ef93c8..d925aa1cc74 100644
--- a/packages/state-transition/src/epoch/processPendingDeposits.ts
+++ b/packages/state-transition/src/epoch/processPendingDeposits.ts
@@ -109,6 +109,12 @@ function applyPendingDeposit(
       addValidatorToRegistry(ForkSeq.electra, state, pubkey, withdrawalCredentials, amount);
       const newValidatorIndex = state.validators.length - 1;
       cache.isCompoundingValidatorArr[newValidatorIndex] = hasCompoundingWithdrawalCredential(withdrawalCredentials);
+      // set balance, so that the next deposit of same pubkey will increase the balance correctly
+      // this is to fix the double deposit issue found in mekong
+      // see https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/pull/7255
+      if (cachedBalances) {
+        cachedBalances[newValidatorIndex] = amount;
+      }
     }
   } else {
     // Increase balance