diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciCompilerToVM.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciCompilerToVM.cpp
index 6942fe0563f..00a3984df8a 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciCompilerToVM.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciCompilerToVM.cpp
@@ -2779,11 +2779,11 @@ C2V_VMENTRY_0(jlong, translate, (JNIEnv* env, jobject, jobject obj_handle, jbool
       } else {
         // Link the new HotSpotNmethod to the nmethod
         PEER_JVMCIENV->initialize_installed_code(result, nm, JVMCI_CHECK_0);
-        // Only HotSpotNmethod instances in the HotSpot heap are tracked directly by the runtime.
-        if (PEER_JVMCIENV->is_hotspot()) {
+        // Only non-default HotSpotNmethod instances in the HotSpot heap are tracked directly by the runtime.
+        if (!isDefault && PEER_JVMCIENV->is_hotspot()) {
           JVMCINMethodData* data = nm->jvmci_nmethod_data();
           if (data == nullptr) {
-            JVMCI_THROW_MSG_0(IllegalArgumentException, "Cannot set HotSpotNmethod mirror for default nmethod");
+            JVMCI_THROW_MSG_0(IllegalArgumentException, "Missing HotSpotNmethod data");
           }
           if (data->get_nmethod_mirror(nm, /* phantom_ref */ false) != nullptr) {
             JVMCI_THROW_MSG_0(IllegalArgumentException, "Cannot overwrite existing HotSpotNmethod mirror for nmethod");
diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciRuntime.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciRuntime.cpp
index 226c4f5dea1..da87341e5bf 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciRuntime.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/jvmci/jvmciRuntime.cpp
@@ -824,10 +824,10 @@ oop JVMCINMethodData::get_nmethod_mirror(nmethod* nm, bool phantom_ref) {
 }
 
 void JVMCINMethodData::set_nmethod_mirror(nmethod* nm, oop new_mirror) {
-  assert(_nmethod_mirror_index != -1, "cannot set JVMCI mirror for nmethod");
+  guarantee(_nmethod_mirror_index != -1, "cannot set JVMCI mirror for nmethod");
   oop* addr = nm->oop_addr_at(_nmethod_mirror_index);
-  assert(new_mirror != nullptr, "use clear_nmethod_mirror to clear the mirror");
-  assert(*addr == nullptr, "cannot overwrite non-null mirror");
+  guarantee(new_mirror != nullptr, "use clear_nmethod_mirror to clear the mirror");
+  guarantee(*addr == nullptr, "cannot overwrite non-null mirror");
 
   *addr = new_mirror;