diff --git a/benchmarks/blockstore/bench_store.nim b/benchmarks/blockstore/bench_store.nim
index 7cd44bd2..0a96e0c3 100644
--- a/benchmarks/blockstore/bench_store.nim
+++ b/benchmarks/blockstore/bench_store.nim
@@ -201,6 +201,10 @@ proc benchmarkGetCidAndProof(
     discard (waitFor store.getCidAndProof(treeCid, i)).tryGet()
   i += 1
 
+proc benchmarkCodexTree(cids: seq[Cid], benchmarkLoops: int) =
+  benchmark "codex_tree", benchmarkLoops:
+    discard CodexTree.init(cids).tryGet()
+
 template profileFunc(fn: untyped) =
   enableProfiling()
   `fn`
@@ -217,11 +221,13 @@ proc benchmarkRepoStore(store: RepoStore) =
 
   var
     blcks = newSeq[bt.Block]()
+    cids = newSeq[Cid]()
     proofs = newSeq[CodexProof]()
 
   for i in 0 ..< benchmarkLoops:
     var blk = createTestBlock(testDataLen.int)
     blcks.add(blk)
+    cids.add(blk.cid)
 
   let (manifest, tree) = makeManifestAndTree(blcks).tryGet()
   let treeCid = tree.rootCid.tryGet()
@@ -245,6 +251,8 @@ proc benchmarkRepoStore(store: RepoStore) =
   benchmarkPut(store, blcks, benchmarkLoops)
   benchmarkDel(store, blcks, benchmarkLoops)
 
+  benchmarkCodexTree(cids, benchmarkLoops)
+
 proc benchStore(store: RepoStore, node: CodexNodeRef, file: File) =
   benchmark "store", 1:
     let
diff --git a/codex/merkletree/codex/codex.nim b/codex/merkletree/codex/codex.nim
index e287dfac..6cab4539 100644
--- a/codex/merkletree/codex/codex.nim
+++ b/codex/merkletree/codex/codex.nim
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import std/sequtils
 import pkg/questionable
 import pkg/questionable/results
 import pkg/libp2p/[cid, multicodec, multihash]
+import pkg/constantine/hashes
 
 import ../../utils
 import ../../rng
@@ -132,9 +133,13 @@ func compress*(x, y: openArray[byte], key: ByteTreeKey, mhash: MHash): ?!ByteHas
   ## Compress two hashes
   ##
 
-  var digest = newSeq[byte](mhash.size)
-  mhash.coder(@x & @y & @[key.byte], digest)
-  success digest
+  # var digest = newSeq[byte](mhash.size)
+  # #mhash.coder(@x & @y & @[key.byte], digest)
+  let input = @x & @y & @[key.byte]
+
+  var digest = hashes.sha256.hash(input)
+
+  success @digest
 
 func init*(
     _: type CodexTree, mcodec: MultiCodec = Sha256HashCodec, leaves: openArray[ByteHash]