diff --git a/eth2/state_processing/Cargo.toml b/eth2/state_processing/Cargo.toml
index 65d5a2f30..633c5bfef 100644
--- a/eth2/state_processing/Cargo.toml
+++ b/eth2/state_processing/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ serde = "1.0"
 serde_derive = "1.0"
 lazy_static = "0.1"
 serde_yaml = "0.8"
+eth2_ssz = { path = "../utils/ssz" }
 beacon_chain = { path = "../../beacon_node/beacon_chain" }
 store = { path = "../../beacon_node/store" }
 lmd_ghost = { path = "../lmd_ghost" }
diff --git a/eth2/state_processing/benches/benches.rs b/eth2/state_processing/benches/benches.rs
index 28afd0614..bdbe57b8e 100644
--- a/eth2/state_processing/benches/benches.rs
+++ b/eth2/state_processing/benches/benches.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ extern crate env_logger;
 
 use criterion::Criterion;
 use criterion::{black_box, criterion_group, criterion_main, Benchmark};
+use ssz::Encode;
 use state_processing::{test_utils::BlockBuilder, BlockSignatureStrategy, VerifySignatures};
 use types::{BeaconBlock, BeaconState, ChainSpec, EthSpec, MainnetEthSpec, MinimalEthSpec, Slot};
 
@@ -393,6 +394,32 @@ fn bench_block<T: EthSpec>(
         })
         .sample_size(10),
     );
+
+    let local_block = block.clone();
+    c.bench(
+        &title,
+        Benchmark::new("ssz_serialize_block", move |b| {
+            b.iter_batched_ref(
+                || (),
+                |_| black_box(local_block.as_ssz_bytes()),
+                criterion::BatchSize::SmallInput,
+            )
+        })
+        .sample_size(10),
+    );
+
+    let local_block = block.clone();
+    c.bench(
+        &title,
+        Benchmark::new("ssz_block_len", move |b| {
+            b.iter_batched_ref(
+                || (),
+                |_| black_box(local_block.ssz_bytes_len()),
+                criterion::BatchSize::SmallInput,
+            )
+        })
+        .sample_size(10),
+    );
 }
 
 criterion_group!(benches, all_benches,);