diff --git a/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/config/EthNetworkConfig.java b/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/config/EthNetworkConfig.java
index 3f95522e317..7cddfd35dbc 100644
--- a/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/config/EthNetworkConfig.java
+++ b/besu/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/config/EthNetworkConfig.java
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.math.BigInteger;
-import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -168,8 +167,7 @@ private static URL jsonConfigSource(final String resourceName) {
    */
   public static String jsonConfig(final NetworkName network) {
     try {
-      return Resources.toString(
-          network.getGenesisFileResource(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+      return Resources.toString(network.getGenesisFileResource(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
     } catch (IOException e) {
       throw new RuntimeException(e);
     }
diff --git a/config/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/config/GenesisReader.java b/config/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/config/GenesisReader.java
index c0b96b8da0d..edf1503e8b4 100644
--- a/config/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/config/GenesisReader.java
+++ b/config/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/config/GenesisReader.java
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ public GenesisAccount next() {
           Bytes code = null;
           Map<UInt256, UInt256> storage = Map.of();
           Bytes32 privateKey = null;
+          parser.nextToken(); // consume start object
           while (parser.nextToken() != JsonToken.END_OBJECT) {
             switch (normalizeKey(parser.currentName())) {
               case "nonce":
@@ -192,6 +193,10 @@ public GenesisAccount next() {
                 }
                 break;
             }
+            if (parser.currentToken() == JsonToken.START_OBJECT) {
+              // ignore any unknown nested object
+              parser.skipChildren();
+            }
           }
           parser.nextToken();
           return new GenesisAccount(address, nonce, balance, code, storage, privateKey);