diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 3fb2716480..80d82dd447 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 4.0
+ * Default for start_native_transport now true if not set in config (CASSANDRA-13656)
  * Don't add localhost to the graph when calculating where to stream from (CASSANDRA-13583)
  * Allow skipping equality-restricted clustering columns in ORDER BY clause (CASSANDRA-10271)
  * Use common nowInSec for validation compactions (CASSANDRA-13671)
diff --git a/conf/jvm.options b/conf/jvm.options
index 398b52fb5c..17376d6cd2 100644
--- a/conf/jvm.options
+++ b/conf/jvm.options
@@ -56,9 +56,6 @@
 # Set the SSL port for encrypted communication. (Default: 7001)
 #-Dcassandra.ssl_storage_port=port
 
-# Enable or disable the native transport server. See start_native_transport in cassandra.yaml.
-# cassandra.start_native_transport=true|false
-
 # Set the port for inter-node communication. (Default: 7000)
 #-Dcassandra.storage_port=port
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
index b7bacde60d..22f3551102 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/config/Config.java
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ public class Config
     public int internode_send_buff_size_in_bytes = 0;
     public int internode_recv_buff_size_in_bytes = 0;
 
-    public boolean start_native_transport = false;
+    public boolean start_native_transport = true;
     public int native_transport_port = 9042;
     public Integer native_transport_port_ssl = null;
     public int native_transport_max_threads = 128;