diff --git a/src/serialize.h b/src/serialize.h
index 9922532849dfb..b14ac89c8ff2a 100644
--- a/src/serialize.h
+++ b/src/serialize.h
@@ -33,7 +33,11 @@
 
 class CScript;
 
-static const unsigned int MAX_SIZE = 0x02000000;
+/**
+ * The maximum size of a serialized object in bytes or number of elements
+ * (for eg vectors) when the size is encoded as CompactSize.
+ */
+static constexpr uint64_t MAX_SIZE = 0x02000000;
 
 /** Maximum amount of memory (in bytes) to allocate at once when deserializing vectors. */
 static const unsigned int MAX_VECTOR_ALLOCATE = 5000000;
@@ -334,8 +338,14 @@ void WriteCompactSize(Stream& os, uint64_t nSize)
     return;
 }
 
-template <typename Stream>
-uint64_t ReadCompactSize(Stream& is)
+/**
+ * Decode a CompactSize-encoded variable-length integer.
+ *
+ * As these are primarily used to encode the size of vector-like serializations, by default a range
+ * check is performed. When used as a generic number encoding, range_check should be set to false.
+ */
+template<typename Stream>
+uint64_t ReadCompactSize(Stream& is, bool range_check = true)
 {
     uint8_t chSize = ser_readdata8(is);
     uint64_t nSizeRet = 0;
@@ -354,8 +364,9 @@ uint64_t ReadCompactSize(Stream& is)
         if (nSizeRet < 0x100000000ULL)
             throw std::ios_base::failure("non-canonical ReadCompactSize()");
     }
-    if (nSizeRet > (uint64_t)MAX_SIZE)
-        throw std::ios_base::failure("ReadCompactSize() : size too large");
+    if (range_check && nSizeRet > MAX_SIZE) {
+        throw std::ios_base::failure("ReadCompactSize(): size too large");
+    }
     return nSizeRet;
 }
 
@@ -489,7 +500,7 @@ static inline Wrapper<Formatter, T&> Using(T&& t) { return Wrapper<Formatter, T&
 
 #define VARINT_MODE(obj, mode) Using<VarIntFormatter<mode>>(obj)
 #define VARINT(obj) Using<VarIntFormatter<VarIntMode::DEFAULT>>(obj)
-#define COMPACTSIZE(obj) Using<CompactSizeFormatter>(obj)
+#define COMPACTSIZE(obj) Using<CompactSizeFormatter<true>>(obj)
 #define LIMITED_STRING(obj,n) Using<LimitedStringFormatter<n>>(obj)
 
 /** Serialization wrapper class for integers in VarInt format. */
@@ -552,12 +563,13 @@ struct CustomUintFormatter
 template<int Bytes> using BigEndianFormatter = CustomUintFormatter<Bytes, true>;
 
 /** Formatter for integers in CompactSize format. */
+template<bool RangeCheck>
 struct CompactSizeFormatter
 {
     template<typename Stream, typename I>
     void Unser(Stream& s, I& v)
     {
-        uint64_t n = ReadCompactSize<Stream>(s);
+        uint64_t n = ReadCompactSize<Stream>(s, RangeCheck);
         if (n < std::numeric_limits<I>::min() || n > std::numeric_limits<I>::max()) {
             throw std::ios_base::failure("CompactSize exceeds limit of type");
         }