diff --git a/src/app.cpp b/src/app.cpp
index 6dc15e3..8c0b331 100644
--- a/src/app.cpp
+++ b/src/app.cpp
@@ -2693,9 +2693,12 @@ void App::beginShutdown()
     shutdown_start_time_ = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
     async_tasks_.cancelAll();
     
-    // Signal the RPC worker to stop accepting new tasks (non-blocking).
+    // Signal the RPC worker to stop accepting new tasks (non-blocking), and abort any call
+    // already in flight so the later join() doesn't wait out a request timeout.
     // The actual thread join + rpc disconnect happen in shutdown() after
     // the render loop exits, so the UI stays responsive.
+    if (rpc_) rpc_->requestAbort();
+    if (fast_rpc_) fast_rpc_->requestAbort();
     if (worker_) {
         worker_->requestStop();
     }
@@ -3308,6 +3311,8 @@ void App::shutdown()
         DEBUG_LOGF("Synchronous shutdown fallback...\n");
         async_tasks_.cancelAll();
         async_tasks_.joinAll();
+        if (rpc_) rpc_->requestAbort();          // unblock any in-flight curl before joining
+        if (fast_rpc_) fast_rpc_->requestAbort();
         if (worker_) {
             worker_->stop();
         }
diff --git a/src/app_network.cpp b/src/app_network.cpp
index b658c14..f635bcf 100644
--- a/src/app_network.cpp
+++ b/src/app_network.cpp
@@ -507,7 +507,9 @@ void App::onDisconnected(const std::string& reason)
     address_validation_cache_dirty_ = true;
     resetTransactionHistoryCacheSession();
 
-    // Tear down the fast-lane connection
+    // Tear down the fast-lane connection. Signal abort first so a fast-lane call blocked in
+    // curl_easy_perform unblocks and stop()'s join() returns promptly (no UI freeze).
+    if (fast_rpc_) fast_rpc_->requestAbort();
     if (fast_worker_) {
         fast_worker_->stop();
     }
diff --git a/src/rpc/rpc_client.cpp b/src/rpc/rpc_client.cpp
index 6f3a973..0a2e7b1 100644
--- a/src/rpc/rpc_client.cpp
+++ b/src/rpc/rpc_client.cpp
@@ -88,6 +88,14 @@ static size_t WriteCallback(void* contents, size_t size, size_t nmemb, std::stri
     return totalSize;
 }
 
+// curl progress callback: a non-zero return aborts the in-flight transfer. This lets a
+// requestAbort() from another thread (disconnect/shutdown) unblock curl_easy_perform so the
+// UI thread's worker join() returns promptly instead of waiting out the request timeout.
+static int xferInfoCallback(void* clientp, curl_off_t, curl_off_t, curl_off_t, curl_off_t) {
+    const auto* self = static_cast<const RPCClient*>(clientp);
+    return (self != nullptr && self->abortRequested()) ? 1 : 0;
+}
+
 // Private implementation using libcurl
 class RPCClient::Impl {
 public:
@@ -170,6 +178,11 @@ bool RPCClient::connect(const std::string& host, const std::string& port,
     curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_URL, impl_->url.c_str());
     curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, impl_->headers);
     curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, WriteCallback);
+    // Progress callback so requestAbort() can unblock an in-flight curl_easy_perform.
+    clearAbort();  // a fresh connection must not start in the aborted state
+    curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_NOPROGRESS, 0L);
+    curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_XFERINFOFUNCTION, xferInfoCallback);
+    curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_XFERINFODATA, this);
     curl_easy_setopt(impl_->curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 30L);
     // Localhost fails fast if nothing is listening; a remote/TLS daemon needs a larger
     // budget for the TCP + TLS handshake over real network latency (1s would spuriously fail).
@@ -230,6 +243,18 @@ json RPCClient::getLastConnectInfo() const
     return last_connect_info_;
 }
 
+void RPCClient::requestAbort()
+{
+    // Deliberately NOT taking curl_mutex_ — the whole point is to interrupt a call() that is
+    // currently holding it inside curl_easy_perform. The atomic is read by xferInfoCallback.
+    abort_.store(true, std::memory_order_relaxed);
+}
+
+void RPCClient::clearAbort()
+{
+    abort_.store(false, std::memory_order_relaxed);
+}
+
 void RPCClient::disconnect()
 {
     std::lock_guard<std::recursive_mutex> lk(curl_mutex_);
diff --git a/src/rpc/rpc_client.h b/src/rpc/rpc_client.h
index 3ad26b1..9bd2e84 100644
--- a/src/rpc/rpc_client.h
+++ b/src/rpc/rpc_client.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #pragma once
 
 #include "types.h"
+#include <atomic>
 #include <string>
 #include <functional>
 #include <memory>
@@ -87,6 +88,18 @@ public:
      */
     bool isConnected() const { return connected_; }
 
+    /**
+     * @brief Ask an in-flight call() to abort as soon as possible (thread-safe).
+     *
+     * Set from another thread (e.g. before stop()-ing the worker on disconnect/shutdown):
+     * a curl progress callback aborts the transfer, so a blocked curl_easy_perform returns
+     * promptly instead of freezing the UI thread's join() until the request timeout. Cleared
+     * on the next connect(); abortRequested() is read by the progress callback.
+     */
+    void requestAbort();
+    void clearAbort();
+    bool abortRequested() const noexcept { return abort_.load(std::memory_order_relaxed); }
+
     /**
      * @brief True if the last connect() succeeded but daemon returned a warmup error.
      * The curl handle is valid and auth succeeded — RPC calls will throw warmup errors
@@ -236,6 +249,7 @@ private:
     std::string port_;
     std::string auth_;  // Base64 encoded "user:password"
     bool connected_ = false;
+    std::atomic<bool> abort_{false};  // set cross-thread to abort an in-flight transfer
     bool warming_up_ = false;
     std::string warmup_status_;
     std::string last_connect_error_;