diff --git a/src/merkle/partial_mt/mod.rs b/src/merkle/partial_mt/mod.rs
index c29b6e8b..278e992f 100644
--- a/src/merkle/partial_mt/mod.rs
+++ b/src/merkle/partial_mt/mod.rs
@@ -107,16 +107,15 @@ impl PartialMerkleTree {
                 .or_insert(vec![node_index.value()]);
         }
 
-        // check if the number of leaves can be accommodated by the tree's depth; we use a min
-        // depth of 63 because we consider passing in a vector of size 2^64 infeasible.
-        let max = (1_u64 << 63) as usize;
+        // Get maximum depth
+        let max_depth = *layers.keys().next_back().unwrap_or(&0);
+
+        // check if the number of leaves can be accommodated by the tree's depth
+        let max = (1_u64 << max_depth) as usize;
         if layers.len() > max {
             return Err(MerkleError::InvalidNumEntries(max, layers.len()));
         }
 
-        // Get maximum depth
-        let max_depth = *layers.keys().next_back().unwrap_or(&0);
-
         // fill layers without nodes with empty vector
         for depth in 0..max_depth {
             layers.entry(depth).or_default();
diff --git a/src/merkle/simple_smt/mod.rs b/src/merkle/simple_smt/mod.rs
index 39f52930..0e1b8756 100644
--- a/src/merkle/simple_smt/mod.rs
+++ b/src/merkle/simple_smt/mod.rs
@@ -79,10 +79,9 @@ impl SimpleSmt {
         // create an empty tree
         let mut tree = Self::new(depth)?;
 
-        // check if the number of leaves can be accommodated by the tree's depth; we use a min
-        // depth of 63 because we consider passing in a vector of size 2^64 infeasible.
+        // check if the number of leaves can be accommodated by the tree's depth
         let entries = entries.into_iter();
-        let max = 1 << tree.depth.min(63);
+        let max = 1 << tree.depth;
         if entries.len() > max {
             return Err(MerkleError::InvalidNumEntries(max, entries.len()));
         }