diff --git a/core/coreiface/options/global.go b/core/coreiface/options/global.go
index 93d635e41..90e2586f1 100644
--- a/core/coreiface/options/global.go
+++ b/core/coreiface/options/global.go
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
 package options
 
 type ApiSettings struct {
-	Offline bool
+	Offline     bool
+	FetchBlocks bool
 }
 
 type ApiOption func(*ApiSettings) error
 
 func ApiOptions(opts ...ApiOption) (*ApiSettings, error) {
 	options := &ApiSettings{
-		Offline: false,
+		Offline:     false,
+		FetchBlocks: true,
 	}
 
 	return ApiOptionsTo(options, opts...)
@@ -34,3 +36,12 @@ func (apiOpts) Offline(offline bool) ApiOption {
 		return nil
 	}
 }
+
+// FetchBlocks when set to false prevents api from fetching blocks from the
+// network while allowing other services such as IPNS to still be online
+func (apiOpts) FetchBlocks(fetch bool) ApiOption {
+	return func(settings *ApiSettings) error {
+		settings.FetchBlocks = fetch
+		return nil
+	}
+}