diff --git a/federationapi/routing/send.go b/federationapi/routing/send.go
index ba73a5a6a..5fe5b543e 100644
--- a/federationapi/routing/send.go
+++ b/federationapi/routing/send.go
@@ -692,7 +692,7 @@ func (t *txnReq) processEvent(ctx context.Context, e *gomatrixserverlib.Event) e
 		},
 		api.DoNotSendToOtherServers,
 		nil,
-		true, // asynchronous
+		false,
 	)
 }