diff --git a/nix/cardano-services/deployments/default.nix b/nix/cardano-services/deployments/default.nix
index ddc72524872..5eb2b17a902 100644
--- a/nix/cardano-services/deployments/default.nix
+++ b/nix/cardano-services/deployments/default.nix
@@ -295,6 +295,7 @@ in
           backend = {
             enabled = true;
             replicas = 3;
+            env.NODE_EXTRA_OPTIONS = "--trace-gc";
           };
           stake-pool-provider = {
             enabled = true;
diff --git a/nix/cardano-services/operables.nix b/nix/cardano-services/operables.nix
index 996a96bbb01..e5b2cc65a2b 100644
--- a/nix/cardano-services/operables.nix
+++ b/nix/cardano-services/operables.nix
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ let
   mainnet  preprod  preprod_p2p  preview  preview_p2p  testnet  vasil-dev  vasil-dev_p2p  vasil-qa
   */
   cardanoServicesPath = pkg: "${pkg}/libexec/incl/packages/cardano-services";
-  runCardanoServices = pkg: "${lib.getExe pkg.nodejs} ${cardanoServicesPath pkg}";
+  runCardanoServices = pkg: "${lib.getExe pkg.nodejs} \${NODE_EXTRA_OPTIONS:-} ${cardanoServicesPath pkg}";
 in {
   cardano-services = std.lib.ops.mkOperable rec {
     package = cell.packages.cardano-services;
diff --git a/nix/cardano-services/packages.nix b/nix/cardano-services/packages.nix
index 94a47626331..2438aaebfd2 100644
--- a/nix/cardano-services/packages.nix
+++ b/nix/cardano-services/packages.nix
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ in {
       postInstall = ''
         cat > $out/bin/cli <<EOF
         #!${nixpkgs.bash}/bin/bash
-        exec "${nixpkgs.nodejs}/bin/node" "$out/libexec/$sourceRoot/packages/cardano-services/dist/cjs/cli.js" "\$@"
+        exec "${nixpkgs.nodejs}/bin/node" ''${NODE_EXTRA_OPTIONS:-} "$out/libexec/$sourceRoot/packages/cardano-services/dist/cjs/cli.js" "\$@"
         EOF
         chmod a+x $out/bin/cli
       '';