diff --git a/consensus-entrypoint b/consensus-entrypoint
index 05b89467a..2c4a45628 100755
--- a/consensus-entrypoint
+++ b/consensus-entrypoint
@@ -46,13 +46,15 @@ until [ "$(curl -s --max-time 10 --connect-timeout 5 -w '%{http_code}' -o /dev/n
   sleep 5
 done
 
-if PUBLIC_IP=$(get_public_ip); then
+if [[ -n "${BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP:-}" ]]; then
+  echo "Using operator-provided BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP: $BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP"
+elif PUBLIC_IP=$(get_public_ip); then
   echo "fetched public IP is: $PUBLIC_IP"
+  export BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP=$PUBLIC_IP
 else
   echo "Could not retrieve public IP."
   exit 8
 fi
-export BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP=$PUBLIC_IP
 
 echo "$BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH_RAW" > "$BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH"