diff --git a/doc/release-notes.md b/doc/release-notes.md
index 0918adb8c2e..c6b43379d31 100644
--- a/doc/release-notes.md
+++ b/doc/release-notes.md
@@ -86,6 +86,12 @@ New settings
 Updated settings
 ----------------
 
+- In previous releases, the meaning of the command line option
+  `-persistmempool` (without a value provided) incorrectly disabled mempool
+  persistence.  `-persistmempool` is now treated like other boolean options to
+  mean `-persistmempool=1`. Passing `-persistmempool=0`, `-persistmempool=1`
+  and `-nopersistmempool` is unaffected. (#23061)
+
 Tools and Utilities
 -------------------
 
diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index ff36ec805c8..244c13170ac 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ void Shutdown(NodeContext& node)
     node.banman.reset();
     node.addrman.reset();
 
-    if (node.mempool && node.mempool->IsLoaded() && node.args->GetArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
+    if (node.mempool && node.mempool->IsLoaded() && node.args->GetBoolArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
         DumpMempool(*node.mempool);
     }
 
diff --git a/src/validation.cpp b/src/validation.cpp
index 51cb1d373cc..a5842187e52 100644
--- a/src/validation.cpp
+++ b/src/validation.cpp
@@ -3740,7 +3740,7 @@ bool BlockManager::LoadBlockIndexDB(std::set<CBlockIndex*, CBlockIndexWorkCompar
 void CChainState::LoadMempool(const ArgsManager& args)
 {
     if (!m_mempool) return;
-    if (args.GetArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
+    if (args.GetBoolArg("-persistmempool", DEFAULT_PERSIST_MEMPOOL)) {
         ::LoadMempool(*m_mempool, *this);
     }
     m_mempool->SetIsLoaded(!ShutdownRequested());
diff --git a/test/functional/mempool_persist.py b/test/functional/mempool_persist.py
index 015876cbbfc..71a132dca3c 100755
--- a/test/functional/mempool_persist.py
+++ b/test/functional/mempool_persist.py
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ class MempoolPersistTest(BitcoinTestFramework):
         self.log.debug("Stop nodes, make node1 use mempool.dat from node0. Verify it has 6 transactions")
         os.rename(mempooldat0, mempooldat1)
         self.stop_nodes()
-        self.start_node(1, extra_args=[])
+        self.start_node(1, extra_args=["-persistmempool"])
         assert self.nodes[1].getmempoolinfo()["loaded"]
         assert_equal(len(self.nodes[1].getrawmempool()), 6)