diff --git a/.changeset/big-yaks-protect.md b/.changeset/big-yaks-protect.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..893cb0955a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/big-yaks-protect.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@hyperlane-xyz/deploy-sdk': patch
+---
+
+fix: replace error with debug log in altvm file submitter
diff --git a/typescript/deploy-sdk/src/AltVMFileSubmitter.ts b/typescript/deploy-sdk/src/AltVMFileSubmitter.ts
index 90a56e5103..f97a51c597 100644
--- a/typescript/deploy-sdk/src/AltVMFileSubmitter.ts
+++ b/typescript/deploy-sdk/src/AltVMFileSubmitter.ts
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ export class AltVMFileSubmitter implements ITransactionSubmitter {
       );
       allTxs.unshift(...maybeExistingTxs);
     } catch (e) {
-      this.logger.error(`Invalid transactions read from ${filepath}`, e);
+      this.logger.debug(`Invalid transactions read from ${filepath}`, e);
     }
 
     writeYamlOrJson(filepath, allTxs);