diff --git a/jwk.go b/jwk.go
index 1cba7f5..b376401 100644
--- a/jwk.go
+++ b/jwk.go
@@ -53,10 +53,26 @@ type JWKSet struct {
 	Keys []JWK `json:"keys"`
 }
 
-// JWKCache provides thread-safe caching of JWKS using UniversalCache
+// JWKCache provides thread-safe caching of JWKS using UniversalCache.
+//
+// inflightFetches deduplicates concurrent fetches for the same JWKS URL.
+// It replaces a global sync.RWMutex that was previously held for the entire
+// HTTP round-trip in GetJWKS: on a cold cache (cold pod, JWK rotation, brief
+// network blip) every concurrent request piled up on that single Lock(), and
+// under Yaegi each Lock acquisition costs 10-50ms of interpreter-dispatch
+// overhead. The singleflight pattern keeps the cold-cache cost O(1) HTTP
+// fetch regardless of how many requests are waiting.
 type JWKCache struct {
-	cache *UniversalCache
-	mutex sync.RWMutex
+	cache           *UniversalCache
+	inflightFetches sync.Map // map[jwksURL string]*jwksFetch
+}
+
+// jwksFetch represents an in-flight JWKS fetch. Done is closed when the fetch
+// completes; jwks and err carry the result (one of them is set, never both).
+type jwksFetch struct {
+	done chan struct{}
+	jwks *JWKSet
+	err  error
 }
 
 // JWKCacheInterface defines the contract for JWK caching implementations.
@@ -83,36 +99,58 @@ func NewJWKCache() *JWKCache {
 // request refetches from the upstream. JWK rotation is rare and a per-replica
 // HTTP fetch on cold cache is cheap, so cross-replica coherence buys nothing.
 func (c *JWKCache) GetJWKS(ctx context.Context, jwksURL string, httpClient *http.Client) (*JWKSet, error) {
-	// Check cache first
+	// Fast path: cache hit.
 	if cachedValue, found := c.cache.GetLocal(jwksURL); found {
 		if jwks, ok := cachedValue.(*JWKSet); ok {
 			return jwks, nil
 		}
 	}
 
-	c.mutex.Lock()
-	defer c.mutex.Unlock()
+	// Singleflight: dedupe concurrent fetches per URL key. The first arrival
+	// performs the HTTP fetch; any later arrival for the same URL waits on
+	// its done channel and shares the result. No global lock is held during
+	// the fetch.
+	candidate := &jwksFetch{done: make(chan struct{})}
+	if existing, loaded := c.inflightFetches.LoadOrStore(jwksURL, candidate); loaded {
+		f, _ := existing.(*jwksFetch)
+		select {
+		case <-f.done:
+			return f.jwks, f.err
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return nil, ctx.Err()
+		}
+	}
 
-	// Double-check after acquiring lock
+	// We're the leader. Make absolutely sure the result fields and the
+	// in-flight map entry are cleaned up before any waiter unblocks.
+	defer func() {
+		c.inflightFetches.Delete(jwksURL)
+		close(candidate.done)
+	}()
+
+	// Re-check the cache in case a concurrent fetch completed between our
+	// initial miss and our LoadOrStore win.
 	if cachedValue, found := c.cache.GetLocal(jwksURL); found {
 		if jwks, ok := cachedValue.(*JWKSet); ok {
+			candidate.jwks = jwks
 			return jwks, nil
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Fetch from URL
 	jwks, err := fetchJWKS(ctx, jwksURL, httpClient)
 	if err != nil {
+		candidate.err = err
 		return nil, err
 	}
-
 	if len(jwks.Keys) == 0 {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("JWKS response contains no keys")
+		candidate.err = fmt.Errorf("JWKS response contains no keys")
+		return nil, candidate.err
 	}
 
-	// Cache for 1 hour
+	// Cache for 1 hour.
 	_ = c.cache.SetLocal(jwksURL, jwks, 1*time.Hour) // Safe to ignore: cache failures are non-critical
 
+	candidate.jwks = jwks
 	return jwks, nil
 }