diff --git a/rs/registry/canister/src/flags.rs b/rs/registry/canister/src/flags.rs
index 220c6a48becf..72e7aeb6aa86 100644
--- a/rs/registry/canister/src/flags.rs
+++ b/rs/registry/canister/src/flags.rs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ thread_local! {
     static IS_SUBNET_SPLITTING_ENABLED: Cell<bool> = const { Cell::new(false) };
     static IS_CHUNKIFYING_LARGE_VALUES_ENABLED: Cell<bool> = const { Cell::new(true) };
     static IS_NODE_SWAPPING_ENABLED: Cell<bool> = const { Cell::new(true) };
-    static IS_BLANK_REPLICA_VERSION_ID_FOR_CLOUD_ENGINES_ENABLED: Cell<bool> = const { Cell::new(false) };
+    static IS_BLANK_REPLICA_VERSION_ID_FOR_CLOUD_ENGINES_ENABLED: Cell<bool> = const { Cell::new(true) };
 
     // Temporary flags related to the node swapping feature.
     //
diff --git a/rs/registry/canister/unreleased_changelog.md b/rs/registry/canister/unreleased_changelog.md
index 94126a0ff421..ef35e8a2fe51 100644
--- a/rs/registry/canister/unreleased_changelog.md
+++ b/rs/registry/canister/unreleased_changelog.md
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ on the process that this file is part of, see
 
 ## Changed
 
+* Cloud Engines are now allowed to have blank `replica_version_id` (in their
+  `SubnetRecord`). In this case, `StandardEngineReplicaVersionRecord` is used to
+  determine the Cloud Engine's replica version.
+
 ## Deprecated
 
 ## Removed