diff --git a/internal/dashboard/service.go b/internal/dashboard/service.go
index b8b462c..2bdef2a 100644
--- a/internal/dashboard/service.go
+++ b/internal/dashboard/service.go
@@ -223,19 +223,13 @@ func (s *service) Statistics(ctx context.Context, query StatisticsQuery) (*Stati
 		return redisCached, nil
 	}
 
-	result, err := s.loadStatistics(ctx, days)
-	if err == nil {
-		return result, nil
-	}
-
-	if redisCached, ok := s.getRedisStatistics(ctx, days); ok {
-		s.storeStatistics(days, redisCached)
-		return redisCached, nil
-	}
-
-	s.logger.Error("Serving empty dashboard statistics after fetch failure", map[string]interface{}{
-		"days":  days,
-		"error": err.Error(),
+	// Cold cache: the underlying load performs a full MinIO bucket scan plus Mongo
+	// aggregations that can take minutes. Never block the request on it. Kick off a
+	// background refresh (deduped via singleflight) and serve an empty report so the
+	// endpoint stays fast; subsequent requests get full data once the cache warms.
+	go s.refreshStatistics(days)
+	s.logger.Info("Serving placeholder dashboard statistics while cache warms", map[string]interface{}{
+		"days": days,
 	})
 	return emptyStatisticsReport(days), nil
 }