diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/ConnectionRegistryFactory.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/ConnectionRegistryFactory.java
index 3879d00280c..92c075c0f18 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/ConnectionRegistryFactory.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/ConnectionRegistryFactory.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.client;
 
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants.CLIENT_CONNECTION_REGISTRY_IMPL_CONF_KEY;
+
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.ReflectionUtils;
 import org.apache.yetus.audience.InterfaceAudience;
@@ -35,8 +36,9 @@ final class ConnectionRegistryFactory {
    * @return The connection registry implementation to use.
    */
   static ConnectionRegistry getRegistry(Configuration conf) {
-    Class<? extends ConnectionRegistry> clazz = conf.getClass(
-      CLIENT_CONNECTION_REGISTRY_IMPL_CONF_KEY, MasterRegistry.class, ConnectionRegistry.class);
+    Class<? extends ConnectionRegistry> clazz =
+      conf.getClass(CLIENT_CONNECTION_REGISTRY_IMPL_CONF_KEY, RpcConnectionRegistry.class,
+        ConnectionRegistry.class);
     return ReflectionUtils.newInstance(clazz, conf);
   }
 }