diff --git a/src/init.cpp b/src/init.cpp
index 50643ff96..14dd8fc8a 100644
--- a/src/init.cpp
+++ b/src/init.cpp
@@ -1645,12 +1645,19 @@ bool AppInitMain()
     // Wait for genesis block to be processed
     {
         WaitableLock lock(cs_GenesisWait);
-        while (!fHaveGenesis) {
-            condvar_GenesisWait.wait(lock);
+        // We previously could hang here if StartShutdown() is called prior to
+        // ThreadImport getting started, so instead we just wait on a timer to
+        // check ShutdownRequested() regularly.
+        while (!fHaveGenesis && !ShutdownRequested()) {
+            condvar_GenesisWait.wait_for(lock, std::chrono::milliseconds(500));
         }
         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
index 16b656c7f..f1abe6f46 100644
--- a/src/validation.cpp
+++ b/src/validation.cpp
@@ -2581,9 +2581,6 @@ bool CChainState::ActivateBestChain(CValidationState &state, const CChainParams&
             SyncWithValidationInterfaceQueue();
         }
 
-        if (ShutdownRequested())
-            break;
-
         const CBlockIndex *pindexFork;
         bool fInitialDownload;
         {
@@ -2630,6 +2627,13 @@ bool CChainState::ActivateBestChain(CValidationState &state, const CChainParams&
         }
 
         if (nStopAtHeight && pindexNewTip && 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);
     CheckBlockIndex(chainparams.GetConsensus());