diff --git a/src/wallet/bdb.cpp b/src/wallet/bdb.cpp
--- a/src/wallet/bdb.cpp
+++ b/src/wallet/bdb.cpp
@@ -844,7 +844,7 @@
 bool BerkeleyBatch::WriteKey(CDataStream &&key, CDataStream &&value,
                              bool overwrite) {
     if (!pdb) {
-        return true;
+        return false;
     }
 
     if (fReadOnly) {