diff --git a/types/simulation/account.go b/types/simulation/account.go
index 5bc5bfe14dc6..4fc6fd4dfdb2 100644
--- a/types/simulation/account.go
+++ b/types/simulation/account.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package simulation
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"math/rand"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/crypto/keys/ed25519"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/crypto/keys/secp256k1"
@@ -67,14 +68,23 @@ func FindAccount(accs []Account, address sdk.Address) (Account, bool) {
 // amount from the account's available balance. If the user doesn't have enough
 // funds for paying fees, it returns empty coins.
 func RandomFees(r *rand.Rand, ctx sdk.Context, spendableCoins sdk.Coins) (sdk.Coins, error) {
-	if spendableCoins.Empty() {
+	spendable := sdk.NewCoins()
+	// remove liquid staking denoms from spendable coins since fees cannot be paid in those denoms
+	for _, coin := range spendableCoins {
+		if strings.Contains(coin.Denom, sdk.Bech32PrefixValAddr) {
+			continue
+		}
+		spendable = append(spendable, coin)
+	}
+
+	if spendable.Empty() {
 		return nil, nil
 	}
 
-	perm := r.Perm(len(spendableCoins))
+	perm := r.Perm(len(spendable))
 	var randCoin sdk.Coin
 	for _, index := range perm {
-		randCoin = spendableCoins[index]
+		randCoin = spendable[index]
 		if !randCoin.Amount.IsZero() {
 			break
 		}
diff --git a/x/staking/simulation/operations.go b/x/staking/simulation/operations.go
index eb8dd643f0cd..f6814660056a 100644
--- a/x/staking/simulation/operations.go
+++ b/x/staking/simulation/operations.go
@@ -785,6 +785,9 @@ func SimulateMsgTokenizeShares(ak types.AccountKeeper, bk types.BankKeeper, k ke
 		// check that tokenization would not exceed global cap
 		params := k.GetParams(ctx)
 		totalStaked := k.TotalBondedTokens(ctx).ToDec()
+		if totalStaked.IsZero() {
+			return simtypes.NoOpMsg(types.ModuleName, types.TypeMsgTokenizeShares, "cannot happend - no validators bonded if stake is 0.0"), nil, nil // skip
+		}
 		totalLiquidStaked := k.GetTotalLiquidStakedTokens(ctx).Add(tokenizeShareAmt).ToDec()
 		liquidStakedPercent := totalLiquidStaked.Quo(totalStaked)
 		if liquidStakedPercent.GT(params.GlobalLiquidStakingCap) {