diff --git a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/BUILD.bazel b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/BUILD.bazel
index 00c9210f3..9ce9c70e1 100644
--- a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/BUILD.bazel
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ go_test(
     embed = [":go_default_library"],
     shard_count = 2,
     deps = [
+        "//beacon-chain/cache:go_default_library",
         "//beacon-chain/state:go_default_library",
         "//beacon-chain/state/stateutil:go_default_library",
         "//proto/beacon/p2p/v1:go_default_library",
diff --git a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators.go b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators.go
index 22923e613..783665b4e 100644
--- a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators.go
+++ b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators.go
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ func ActiveValidatorCount(state *stateTrie.BeaconState, epoch uint64) (uint64, e
 	if err != nil {
 		return 0, errors.Wrap(err, "could not interface with committee cache")
 	}
-	if activeCount != 0 {
+	if activeCount != 0 && state.Slot() != 0 {
 		return uint64(activeCount), nil
 	}
 
diff --git a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators_test.go b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators_test.go
index 777c8d49b..19d9f918c 100644
--- a/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators_test.go
+++ b/beacon-chain/core/helpers/validators_test.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/beacon-chain/cache"
 	"github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/shared/hashutil"
 
 	ethpb "github.com/prysmaticlabs/ethereumapis/eth/v1alpha1"
@@ -369,6 +370,40 @@ func TestDelayedActivationExitEpoch_OK(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestActiveValidatorCount_Genesis(t *testing.T) {
+	c := 1000
+	validators := make([]*ethpb.Validator, c)
+	for i := 0; i < len(validators); i++ {
+		validators[i] = &ethpb.Validator{
+			ExitEpoch: params.BeaconConfig().FarFutureEpoch,
+		}
+	}
+	beaconState, err := beaconstate.InitializeFromProto(&pb.BeaconState{
+		Slot:        0,
+		Validators:  validators,
+		RandaoMixes: make([][]byte, params.BeaconConfig().EpochsPerHistoricalVector),
+	})
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	// Preset cache to a bad count.
+	seed, err := Seed(beaconState, 0, params.BeaconConfig().DomainBeaconAttester)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if err := committeeCache.AddCommitteeShuffledList(&cache.Committees{Seed: seed, ShuffledIndices: []uint64{1, 2, 3}}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	validatorCount, err := ActiveValidatorCount(beaconState, CurrentEpoch(beaconState))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if validatorCount != uint64(c) {
+		t.Error("Did not get the correct validator count")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestChurnLimit_OK(t *testing.T) {
 	tests := []struct {
 		validatorCount int