diff --git a/src/stratifier.c b/src/stratifier.c
index fc46efdd..588f708c 100644
--- a/src/stratifier.c
+++ b/src/stratifier.c
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 #ifdef HAVE_SV2
 #include "sv2_strat.h"
 #include "sv2_jd.h"
+#include "sv2_tx.h"
 #endif
 
 /* Consistent across all pool instances */
@@ -6988,7 +6989,6 @@ bool stratifier_sv2_merkle_root(int64_t instance_id, uint8_t merkle_root_le[32],
 	stratum_instance_t *client;
 	sdata_t *sdata = ckpool.sdata;
 	int cblen, i, en1len;
-	uint32_t *data32, *swap32;
 
 	if (!stratifier_sv2_snapshot_work(&snap, instance_id))
 		return false;
@@ -7016,9 +7016,11 @@ bool stratifier_sv2_merkle_root(int64_t instance_id, uint8_t merkle_root_le[32],
 		gen_hash(merkle_sha, merkle_root, 64);
 		memcpy(merkle_sha, merkle_root, 32);
 	}
-	data32 = (uint32_t *)merkle_sha;
-	swap32 = (uint32_t *)merkle_root_le;
-	flip_32(swap32, data32);
+	/* SV2 U256 fields carry the raw SHA256d digest bytes in little-endian
+	 * integer order. gen_hash() already returns those bytes; applying
+	 * CKPool's internal flip_32() here would word-swap the Merkle root and
+	 * cause miners to hash a different header than the pool validates. */
+	sv2_merkle_root_to_u256_le(merkle_sha, merkle_root_le);
 
 	if (wb_id_out)
 		*wb_id_out = snap.wb_id;
diff --git a/src/sv2_tx.c b/src/sv2_tx.c
index 04001823..fed638e7 100644
--- a/src/sv2_tx.c
+++ b/src/sv2_tx.c
@@ -270,6 +270,11 @@ void sv2_merkle_root_from_path(const uint8_t coinbase_txid[32],
 	memcpy(root, pair, 32);
 }
 
+void sv2_merkle_root_to_u256_le(const uint8_t raw_hash[32], uint8_t out[32])
+{
+	memcpy(out, raw_hash, 32);
+}
+
 double sv2_diff_from_nbits(uint32_t nbits)
 {
 	uint32_t be = htobe32(nbits);
diff --git a/src/sv2_tx.h b/src/sv2_tx.h
index d11280e6..006045a2 100644
--- a/src/sv2_tx.h
+++ b/src/sv2_tx.h
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ void sv2_merkle_root_from_path(const uint8_t coinbase_txid[32],
 			       const uint8_t (*path)[32], int steps,
 			       uint8_t root[32]);
 
+/* A SHA256d digest is already the little-endian byte representation required
+ * by the SV2 U256 merkle_root field. */
+void sv2_merkle_root_to_u256_le(const uint8_t raw_hash[32], uint8_t out[32]);
+
 /*
  * Network difficulty of an nbits value held as a host-order U32 — the form SV2
  * carries it in, and the form that goes little-endian into a wire header.
diff --git a/test/sv2_tx.c b/test/sv2_tx.c
index 2b53212d..f45cc084 100644
--- a/test/sv2_tx.c
+++ b/test/sv2_tx.c
@@ -282,6 +282,21 @@ static void test_merkle(void)
 	expect(!memcmp(root, want, 32), "path fold reproduces the tree root");
 }
 
+static void test_merkle_u256_wire_order(void)
+{
+	static const uint8_t raw[32] = {
+		0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13,
+		0x20, 0x21, 0x22, 0x23, 0x30, 0x31, 0x32, 0x33,
+		0x40, 0x41, 0x42, 0x43, 0x50, 0x51, 0x52, 0x53,
+		0x60, 0x61, 0x62, 0x63, 0x70, 0x71, 0x72, 0x73,
+	};
+	uint8_t wire[32];
+
+	sv2_merkle_root_to_u256_le(raw, wire);
+	expect(!memcmp(raw, wire, 32),
+	       "SV2 U256 merkle root preserves raw digest byte order");
+}
+
 /*
  * nbits → difficulty. The byte order matters more than the arithmetic: the
  * little-endian bytes of a wire header fed to libckpool's diff_from_nbits()
@@ -317,6 +332,7 @@ int main(void)
 	test_witness_tx();
 	test_walk_sequence();
 	test_merkle();
+	test_merkle_u256_wire_order();
 	test_nbits_diff();
 
 	if (failures) {