diff --git a/distributed/comm/tests/test_ucx.py b/distributed/comm/tests/test_ucx.py
index 5ecefcd6093..aa5a2824eeb 100644
--- a/distributed/comm/tests/test_ucx.py
+++ b/distributed/comm/tests/test_ucx.py
@@ -413,3 +413,22 @@ async def test_comm_closed_on_read_error():
         await wait_for(reader.read(), 0.01)
 
     assert reader.closed()
+
+
+@gen_test()
+async def test_embedded_cupy_array(
+    ucx_loop,
+):
+    cupy = pytest.importorskip("cupy")
+    da = pytest.importorskip("dask.array")
+    np = pytest.importorskip("numpy")
+
+    async with LocalCluster(
+        protocol="ucx", n_workers=1, threads_per_worker=1, asynchronous=True
+    ) as cluster:
+        async with Client(cluster, asynchronous=True) as client:
+            assert cluster.scheduler_address.startswith("ucx://")
+            a = cupy.arange(10000)
+            x = da.from_array(a, chunks=(10000,))
+            b = await client.compute(x)
+            cupy.testing.assert_array_equal(a, b)
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/core.py b/distributed/protocol/core.py
index d58ee011297..58740af62ce 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/core.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/core.py
@@ -146,6 +146,8 @@ def _decode_default(obj):
                 sub_header = msgpack.loads(frames[offset])
                 offset += 1
                 sub_frames = frames[offset : offset + sub_header["num-sub-frames"]]
+                if "compression" in sub_header:
+                    sub_frames = decompress(sub_header, sub_frames)
                 if allow_pickle:
                     return pickle.loads(sub_header["pickled-obj"], buffers=sub_frames)
                 else: