diff --git a/src/libfetchers/git-utils.cc b/src/libfetchers/git-utils.cc
index 14504ee0b..4a7fc3d0d 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/git-utils.cc
+++ b/src/libfetchers/git-utils.cc
@@ -1334,10 +1334,8 @@ namespace fetchers {
 
 ref<GitRepo> Settings::getTarballCache() const
 {
-    auto tarballCache(_tarballCache.lock());
-    if (!*tarballCache)
-        *tarballCache = GitRepo::openRepo(std::filesystem::path(getCacheDir()) / "tarball-cache", true, true);
-    return ref<GitRepo>(*tarballCache);
+    static auto repoDir = std::filesystem::path(getCacheDir()) / "tarball-cache";
+    return GitRepo::openRepo(repoDir, true, true);
 }
 
 } // namespace fetchers
diff --git a/src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetch-settings.hh b/src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetch-settings.hh
index bddca3f9e..8cfa7f609 100644
--- a/src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetch-settings.hh
+++ b/src/libfetchers/include/nix/fetchers/fetch-settings.hh
@@ -135,8 +135,6 @@ struct Settings : public Config
 
 private:
     mutable Sync<std::shared_ptr<Cache>> _cache;
-
-    mutable Sync<std::shared_ptr<GitRepo>> _tarballCache;
 };
 
 } // namespace nix::fetchers