diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -2277,6 +2277,10 @@
         uiInterface.NotifyBlockTip.disconnect(BlockNotifyGenesisWait);
     }
 
+    if (ShutdownRequested()) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
     // Step 11: start node
 
     int chain_active_height;
diff --git a/src/validation.cpp b/src/validation.cpp
--- a/src/validation.cpp
+++ b/src/validation.cpp
@@ -2936,10 +2936,6 @@
             SyncWithValidationInterfaceQueue();
         }
 
-        if (ShutdownRequested()) {
-            break;
-        }
-
         const CBlockIndex *pindexFork;
         bool fInitialDownload;
         {
@@ -3006,6 +3002,15 @@
             pindexNewTip->nHeight >= nStopAtHeight) {
             StartShutdown();
         }
+
+        // We check shutdown only after giving ActivateBestChainStep a chance to
+        // run once so that we never shutdown before connecting the genesis
+        // block during LoadChainTip(). Previously this caused an assert()
+        // failure during shutdown in such cases as the UTXO DB flushing checks
+        // that the best block hash is non-null.
+        if (ShutdownRequested()) {
+            break;
+        }
     } while (pindexNewTip != pindexMostWork);
 
     const CChainParams &params = config.GetChainParams();