diff --git a/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id.go b/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id.go
index 64e332aa3..fda26ad50 100644
--- a/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id.go
+++ b/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id.go
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import (
 //    the concatenation of `MESSAGE_DOMAIN_INVALID_SNAPPY` with the raw message data,
 //    i.e. `SHA256(MESSAGE_DOMAIN_INVALID_SNAPPY + message.data)[:20]`.
 func MsgID(genesisValidatorsRoot []byte, pmsg *pubsub_pb.Message) string {
-	if pmsg == nil || pmsg.Data == nil {
+	if pmsg == nil || pmsg.Data == nil || pmsg.Topic == nil {
 		// Impossible condition that should
 		// never be hit.
 		msg := make([]byte, 20)
diff --git a/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id_test.go b/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id_test.go
index cafc162ec..70a0e91d5 100644
--- a/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id_test.go
+++ b/beacon-chain/p2p/message_id_test.go
@@ -63,3 +63,16 @@ func TestMessageIDFunction_HashesCorrectlyAltair(t *testing.T) {
 	msgID = string(hashedData[:20])
 	assert.Equal(t, msgID, p2p.MsgID(genesisValidatorsRoot, nMsg), "Got incorrect msg id")
 }
+
+func TestMsgID_WithNilTopic(t *testing.T) {
+	msg := &pubsubpb.Message{
+		Data:  make([]byte, 32),
+		Topic: nil,
+	}
+
+	invalid := make([]byte, 20)
+	copy(invalid, "invalid")
+
+	res := p2p.MsgID([]byte{0x01}, msg)
+	assert.Equal(t, res, string(invalid))
+}