diff --git a/src/chainparams.cpp b/src/chainparams.cpp
index 64723978bb8..75a14c6013d 100644
--- a/src/chainparams.cpp
+++ b/src/chainparams.cpp
@@ -250,6 +250,7 @@ public:
     virtual bool RequireRPCPassword() const { return false; }
     virtual bool MiningRequiresPeers() const { return false; }
     virtual bool MineBlocksOnDemand() const { return true; }
+    virtual bool DefaultCheckMemPool() const { return true; }
     virtual Network NetworkID() const { return CChainParams::REGTEST; }
 };
 static CRegTestParams regTestParams;
diff --git a/src/chainparams.h b/src/chainparams.h
index f331d956fe7..bc982ee0401 100644
--- a/src/chainparams.h
+++ b/src/chainparams.h
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ public:
     virtual bool RequireRPCPassword() const { return true; }
     /* Make miner wait to have peers to avoid wasting work */
     virtual bool MiningRequiresPeers() const { return true; }
+    /* Default value for -checkmempool argument */
+    virtual bool DefaultCheckMemPool() const { return false; }
     const string& DataDir() const { return strDataDir; }
     /* Make miner stop after a block is found. In RPC, don't return
      * until nGenProcLimit blocks are generated */
diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index 840a07d610b..a225c3f964c 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -517,7 +517,8 @@ bool AppInit2(boost::thread_group& threadGroup)
         InitWarning(_("Warning: Deprecated argument -debugnet ignored, use -debug=net"));
 
     fBenchmark = GetBoolArg("-benchmark", false);
-    mempool.setSanityCheck(GetBoolArg("-checkmempool", RegTest()));
+    // Checkmempool defaults to true in regtest mode
+    mempool.setSanityCheck(GetBoolArg("-checkmempool", Params().DefaultCheckMemPool()));
     Checkpoints::fEnabled = GetBoolArg("-checkpoints", true);
 
     // -par=0 means autodetect, but nScriptCheckThreads==0 means no concurrency