diff --git a/crates/net/eth-wire-types/Cargo.toml b/crates/net/eth-wire-types/Cargo.toml
index 245643569d2..b54462010e8 100644
--- a/crates/net/eth-wire-types/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/net/eth-wire-types/Cargo.toml
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@ proptest-derive.workspace = true
 rand.workspace = true
 
 [features]
-default = ["serde"]
 arbitrary = [
     "reth-primitives/arbitrary",
     "dep:arbitrary",
diff --git a/crates/net/eth-wire-types/src/header.rs b/crates/net/eth-wire-types/src/header.rs
index c9589527b34..f6b3b8ac4cd 100644
--- a/crates/net/eth-wire-types/src/header.rs
+++ b/crates/net/eth-wire-types/src/header.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 use alloy_rlp::{Decodable, Encodable};
 use bytes::BufMut;
 use reth_codecs::derive_arbitrary;
-use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 
 /// Represents the direction for a headers request depending on the `reverse` field of the request.
 /// > The response must contain a number of block headers, of rising number when reverse is 0,
@@ -16,7 +15,8 @@ use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 ///
 /// See also <https://github.com/ethereum/devp2p/blob/master/caps/eth.md#getblockheaders-0x03>
 #[derive_arbitrary(rlp)]
-#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone, Eq, PartialEq, Hash, Default, Serialize, Deserialize)]
+#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone, Eq, PartialEq, Hash, Default)]
+#[cfg_attr(feature = "serde", derive(serde::Serialize, serde::Deserialize))]
 pub enum HeadersDirection {
     /// Falling block number.
     Falling,
diff --git a/crates/net/eth-wire/Cargo.toml b/crates/net/eth-wire/Cargo.toml
index 1190a411dad..7caa906b622 100644
--- a/crates/net/eth-wire/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/net/eth-wire/Cargo.toml
@@ -59,14 +59,14 @@ proptest.workspace = true
 proptest-arbitrary-interop.workspace = true
 proptest-derive.workspace = true
 async-stream.workspace = true
+serde.workspace = true
 
 [features]
-default = ["serde"]
 arbitrary = [
     "reth-primitives/arbitrary",
     "dep:arbitrary",
 ]
-serde = ["dep:serde"]
+serde = ["dep:serde", "reth-eth-wire-types/serde"]
 
 [[test]]
 name = "fuzz_roundtrip"