diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 1ac22f929a..04902add2a 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
 2.0.10
+ * (cqlsh) cqlsh should automatically disable tracing when selecting
+   from system_traces (CASSANDRA-7641)
  * (Hadoop) Add CqlOutputFormat (CASSANDRA-6927)
  * Don't depend on cassandra config for nodetool ring (CASSANDRA-7508)
  * (cqlsh) Fix failing cqlsh formatting tests (CASSANDRA-7703)
diff --git a/bin/cqlsh b/bin/cqlsh
index 6a24753956..6aa397e6c0 100755
--- a/bin/cqlsh
+++ b/bin/cqlsh
@@ -893,6 +893,9 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
         if ksname is not None:
             ksname = self.cql_unprotect_name(ksname)
         cfname = self.cql_unprotect_name(parsed.get_binding('cfname'))
+        tracing_was_enabled = self.tracing_enabled
+        stop_tracing = ksname == 'system_traces' or (ksname is None and self.current_keyspace == 'system_traces')
+        self.tracing_enabled = self.tracing_enabled and not stop_tracing
         statement = parsed.extract_orig()
         with_default_limit = parsed.get_binding('limit') is None
         if with_default_limit:
@@ -900,6 +903,7 @@ class Shell(cmd.Cmd):
         self.perform_statement(statement,
                                decoder=ErrorHandlingSchemaDecoder,
                                with_default_limit=with_default_limit)
+        self.tracing_enabled = tracing_was_enabled
 
     def perform_statement(self, statement, decoder=None, with_default_limit=False):
         if self.tracing_enabled: