diff --git a/chain/client/src/client.rs b/chain/client/src/client.rs
index 5b5704b4981..42e3bcb317b 100644
--- a/chain/client/src/client.rs
+++ b/chain/client/src/client.rs
@@ -444,16 +444,12 @@ impl Client {
             epoch_manager.clone(),
             chain.chain_store().store().clone(),
         );
-        // Chunk validator should panic if there is a validator error in non-production chains (eg. mocket and localnet).
-        let panic_on_validation_error = config.chain_id != near_primitives::chains::MAINNET
-            && config.chain_id != near_primitives::chains::TESTNET;
         let chunk_validator = ChunkValidator::new(
             epoch_manager.clone(),
             network_adapter.clone().into_sender(),
             runtime_adapter.clone(),
             config.orphan_state_witness_pool_size,
             async_computation_spawner,
-            panic_on_validation_error,
         );
         let chunk_distribution_network = ChunkDistributionNetwork::from_config(&config);
         Ok(Self {
diff --git a/chain/client/src/stateless_validation/chunk_validator/mod.rs b/chain/client/src/stateless_validation/chunk_validator/mod.rs
index d874cb1ce47..c55db293c93 100644
--- a/chain/client/src/stateless_validation/chunk_validator/mod.rs
+++ b/chain/client/src/stateless_validation/chunk_validator/mod.rs
@@ -42,11 +42,6 @@ pub struct ChunkValidator {
     orphan_witness_pool: OrphanStateWitnessPool,
     validation_spawner: Arc<dyn AsyncComputationSpawner>,
     main_state_transition_result_cache: chunk_validation::MainStateTransitionCache,
-    /// If true, a chunk-witness validation error will lead to a panic.
-    /// This is used for non-production environments, eg. mocknet and localnet,
-    /// to quickly detect issues in validation code, and must NOT be set to true
-    /// for mainnet and testnet.
-    panic_on_validation_error: bool,
 }
 
 impl ChunkValidator {
@@ -56,7 +51,6 @@ impl ChunkValidator {
         runtime_adapter: Arc<dyn RuntimeAdapter>,
         orphan_witness_pool_size: usize,
         validation_spawner: Arc<dyn AsyncComputationSpawner>,
-        panic_on_validation_error: bool,
     ) -> Self {
         Self {
             epoch_manager,
@@ -66,7 +60,6 @@ impl ChunkValidator {
             validation_spawner,
             main_state_transition_result_cache: chunk_validation::MainStateTransitionCache::default(
             ),
-            panic_on_validation_error,
         }
     }
 
@@ -126,7 +119,6 @@ impl ChunkValidator {
             chunk_header.shard_id(),
         )?;
         let shard_uid = epoch_manager.shard_id_to_uid(last_header.shard_id(), &epoch_id)?;
-        let panic_on_validation_error = self.panic_on_validation_error;
 
         if let Ok(prev_chunk_extra) = chain.get_chunk_extra(prev_block_hash, &shard_uid) {
             match validate_chunk_with_chunk_extra(
@@ -147,14 +139,14 @@ impl ChunkValidator {
                     return Ok(());
                 }
                 Err(err) => {
-                    if panic_on_validation_error {
-                        panic!("Failed to validate chunk using existing chunk extra: {:?}", err);
-                    } else {
-                        tracing::error!(
-                            "Failed to validate chunk using existing chunk extra: {:?}",
-                            err
-                        );
-                    }
+                    tracing::error!(
+                        target: "client",
+                        ?err,
+                        "Failed to validate chunk using existing chunk extra",
+                    );
+                    near_chain::stateless_validation::metrics::CHUNK_WITNESS_VALIDATION_FAILED_TOTAL
+                        .with_label_values(&[&shard_id.to_string(), err.prometheus_label_value()])
+                        .inc();
                     return Err(err);
                 }
             }
@@ -187,24 +179,16 @@ impl ChunkValidator {
                     near_chain::stateless_validation::metrics::CHUNK_WITNESS_VALIDATION_FAILED_TOTAL
                         .with_label_values(&[&shard_id.to_string(), err.prometheus_label_value()])
                         .inc();
-                    if panic_on_validation_error {
-                        panic!("Failed to validate chunk: {:?}", err);
-                    } else {
-                        tracing::error!("Failed to validate chunk: {:?}", err);
-                    }
+                    tracing::error!(
+                        target: "client",
+                        ?err,
+                        "Failed to validate chunk"
+                    );
                 }
             }
         });
         Ok(())
     }
-
-    /// TESTING ONLY: Used to override the value of panic_on_validation_error, for example,
-    /// when the chunks validation errors are expected when testing adversarial behavior and
-    /// the test should not panic for the invalid chunks witnesses.
-    #[cfg(feature = "test_features")]
-    pub fn set_should_panic_on_validation_error(&mut self, value: bool) {
-        self.panic_on_validation_error = value;
-    }
 }
 
 pub(crate) fn send_chunk_endorsement_to_block_producers(
diff --git a/integration-tests/src/tests/client/features/adversarial_behaviors.rs b/integration-tests/src/tests/client/features/adversarial_behaviors.rs
index a8a5a36d85e..64a107ed774 100644
--- a/integration-tests/src/tests/client/features/adversarial_behaviors.rs
+++ b/integration-tests/src/tests/client/features/adversarial_behaviors.rs
@@ -373,9 +373,6 @@ fn test_banning_chunk_producer_when_seeing_invalid_chunk() {
     init_test_logger();
     let mut test = AdversarialBehaviorTestData::new();
     test.env.clients[7].produce_invalid_chunks = true;
-    for client in test.env.clients.iter_mut() {
-        client.chunk_validator.set_should_panic_on_validation_error(false);
-    }
     test_banning_chunk_producer_when_seeing_invalid_chunk_base(test);
 }
 
@@ -385,8 +382,5 @@ fn test_banning_chunk_producer_when_seeing_invalid_tx_in_chunk() {
     init_test_logger();
     let mut test = AdversarialBehaviorTestData::new();
     test.env.clients[7].produce_invalid_tx_in_chunks = true;
-    for client in test.env.clients.iter_mut() {
-        client.chunk_validator.set_should_panic_on_validation_error(false);
-    }
     test_banning_chunk_producer_when_seeing_invalid_chunk_base(test);
 }