diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8b8d846..18c6239 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@
 
 ### Improvements
 
+- [\#146](https://github.com/arkworks-rs/crypto-primitives/pull/146) Make dependency on
+`ark-relations` optional, do not depend on it for the `std` feature.
+
 ### Bugfixes
 
 ## v0.4.0
diff --git a/crypto-primitives/Cargo.toml b/crypto-primitives/Cargo.toml
index a3c9bc5..1b768ec 100644
--- a/crypto-primitives/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crypto-primitives/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ ark-crypto-primitives-macros = { version = "^0.4.0", path = "../macros" }
 ark-ff = { version = "^0.4.0", default-features = false }
 ark-ec = { version = "^0.4.0", default-features = false }
 ark-std = { version = "^0.4.0", default-features = false }
-ark-relations = { version = "^0.4.0", default-features = false }
+ark-relations = { version = "^0.4.0", optional = true, default-features = false }
 ark-serialize = { version = "^0.4.0", default-features = false, features = [ "derive" ] }
 
 blake2 = { version = "0.10", default-features = false }
@@ -37,10 +37,10 @@ hashbrown = { version = "0.14", default-features = false, features = ["inline-mo
 
 [features]
 default = ["std"]
-std = [ "ark-ff/std", "ark-ec/std", "ark-std/std", "ark-relations/std" ]
+std = [ "ark-ff/std", "ark-ec/std", "ark-std/std" ]
 print-trace = [ "ark-std/print-trace" ]
 parallel = [ "std", "rayon", "ark-ec/parallel", "ark-std/parallel", "ark-ff/parallel" ]
-r1cs = [ "ark-r1cs-std", "tracing" ]
+r1cs = [ "ark-r1cs-std", "ark-relations", "tracing"]
 crh = [ "sponge" ]
 sponge = []
 commitment = ["crh"]