diff --git a/src/pipeline.ts b/src/pipeline.ts
index 9f99520b..afbad7b5 100644
--- a/src/pipeline.ts
+++ b/src/pipeline.ts
@@ -116,8 +116,22 @@ async function storeEvent(event: DittoEvent, signal?: AbortSignal): Promise<void
   const store = await Storages.db();
   const kysely = await DittoDB.getInstance();
 
-  await updateStats({ event, store, kysely }).catch(debug);
-  await store.event(event, { signal });
+  try {
+    await kysely.transaction().execute(async (trx) => {
+      await updateStats({ event, store, kysely: trx });
+      await store.event(event, { signal });
+    });
+  } catch (e) {
+    if (e.message === 'Cannot add a deleted event') {
+      throw new RelayError('blocked', 'event deleted by user');
+    } else if (e.message === 'Cannot replace an event with an older event') {
+      return;
+    } else if (e.message === 'ERROR The transaction "TRANSACTION_NAME" has been aborted') {
+      return; // useless error message, probably from deno-postgres
+    } else {
+      debug('ERROR', e.message);
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 /** Parse kind 0 metadata and track indexes in the database. */
diff --git a/src/storages/EventsDB.test.ts b/src/storages/EventsDB.test.ts
index 16b429d4..74068e94 100644
--- a/src/storages/EventsDB.test.ts
+++ b/src/storages/EventsDB.test.ts
@@ -2,14 +2,12 @@ import { Database as Sqlite } from '@db/sqlite';
 import { DenoSqlite3Dialect } from '@soapbox/kysely-deno-sqlite';
 import { assertEquals, assertRejects } from '@std/assert';
 import { Kysely } from 'kysely';
-import { generateSecretKey } from 'nostr-tools';
 
 import { Conf } from '@/config.ts';
 import { DittoDB } from '@/db/DittoDB.ts';
 import { DittoTables } from '@/db/DittoTables.ts';
-import { RelayError } from '@/RelayError.ts';
 import { EventsDB } from '@/storages/EventsDB.ts';
-import { eventFixture, genEvent } from '@/test.ts';
+import { eventFixture } from '@/test.ts';
 
 /** Create in-memory database for testing. */
 const createDB = async () => {
@@ -143,49 +141,17 @@ Deno.test('admin can delete any event', async () => {
   assertEquals(await eventsDB.query([{ kinds: [1] }]), [two]);
 });
 
-Deno.test('throws a RelayError when inserting an event deleted by the admin', async () => {
-  const { eventsDB } = await createDB();
-
-  const event = genEvent();
-  await eventsDB.event(event);
-
-  const deletion = genEvent({ kind: 5, tags: [['e', event.id]] }, Conf.seckey);
-  await eventsDB.event(deletion);
-
-  await assertRejects(
-    () => eventsDB.event(event),
-    RelayError,
-    'event deleted by admin',
-  );
-});
-
-Deno.test('throws a RelayError when inserting an event deleted by a user', async () => {
-  const { eventsDB } = await createDB();
-
-  const sk = generateSecretKey();
-
-  const event = genEvent({}, sk);
-  await eventsDB.event(event);
-
-  const deletion = genEvent({ kind: 5, tags: [['e', event.id]] }, sk);
-  await eventsDB.event(deletion);
-
-  await assertRejects(
-    () => eventsDB.event(event),
-    RelayError,
-    'event deleted by user',
-  );
-});
-
 Deno.test('inserting replaceable events', async () => {
   const { eventsDB } = await createDB();
 
   const event = await eventFixture('event-0');
   await eventsDB.event(event);
 
-  const olderEvent = { ...event, id: '123', created_at: event.created_at - 1 };
-  await eventsDB.event(olderEvent);
-  assertEquals(await eventsDB.query([{ kinds: [0], authors: [event.pubkey] }]), [event]);
+  await assertRejects(async () => {
+    const olderEvent = { ...event, id: '123', created_at: event.created_at - 1 };
+    await eventsDB.event(olderEvent);
+    assertEquals(await eventsDB.query([{ kinds: [0], authors: [event.pubkey] }]), [event]);
+  });
 
   const newerEvent = { ...event, id: '123', created_at: event.created_at + 1 };
   await eventsDB.event(newerEvent);
diff --git a/src/storages/EventsDB.ts b/src/storages/EventsDB.ts
index 8955d6d6..7ce9bde4 100644
--- a/src/storages/EventsDB.ts
+++ b/src/storages/EventsDB.ts
@@ -60,18 +60,7 @@ class EventsDB implements NStore {
     }
 
     await this.deleteEventsAdmin(event);
-
-    try {
-      await this.store.event(event);
-    } catch (e) {
-      if (e.message === 'Cannot add a deleted event') {
-        throw new RelayError('blocked', 'event deleted by user');
-      } else if (e.message === 'Cannot replace an event with an older event') {
-        return;
-      } else {
-        this.console.debug('ERROR', e.message);
-      }
-    }
+    await this.store.event(event);
   }
 
   /** Check if an event has been deleted by the admin. */