diff --git a/baseapp/options.go b/baseapp/options.go
index 0e2b8caf1ce9..614cdc8581e2 100644
--- a/baseapp/options.go
+++ b/baseapp/options.go
@@ -113,9 +113,8 @@ func (app *BaseApp) SetVersion(v string) {
 	app.version = v
 }
 
-// SetAppVersion sets the application's protocol version
 func (app *BaseApp) SetAppVersion(ctx sdk.Context, version uint64) {
-	if app.paramStore.Has(ctx, ParamStoreKeyVersionParams) {
+	if app.paramStore != nil && app.paramStore.Has(ctx, ParamStoreKeyVersionParams) {
 		vp := &tmproto.VersionParams{AppVersion: version}
 		app.paramStore.Set(ctx, ParamStoreKeyVersionParams, vp)
 	}
diff --git a/baseapp/options_test.go b/baseapp/options_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..93feabc49dec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/baseapp/options_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package baseapp
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+// TestSetAppVersion verifies that SetAppVersion does not panic if paramStore is nil.
+func TestSetAppVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	baseApp := NewBaseApp("test", nil, nil, nil)
+	baseApp.paramStore = nil // explicitly set to nil
+
+	require.NotPanics(t, func() {
+		baseApp.SetAppVersion(types.Context{}, uint64(1))
+	})
+}