diff --git a/x/users/types.go b/x/users/types.go
index c05ffbee..57459d9b 100644
--- a/x/users/types.go
+++ b/x/users/types.go
@@ -17,11 +17,18 @@ type User struct {
 
 // NewUser creates a new User struct from an auth.Account (like AppAccount)
 func NewUser(acc auth.Account) User {
+	var pubKey []byte
+
+	// GetPubKey can return nil and Bytes() will panic due to nil pointer
+	if acc.GetPubKey() != nil {
+		pubKey = acc.GetPubKey().Bytes()
+	}
+
 	return User{
 		Address:       acc.GetAddress().String(),
 		AccountNumber: acc.GetAccountNumber(),
 		Coins:         acc.GetCoins(),
 		Sequence:      acc.GetSequence(),
-		Pubkey:        tcmn.HexBytes(acc.GetPubKey().Bytes()),
+		Pubkey:        tcmn.HexBytes(pubKey),
 	}
 }
diff --git a/x/users/types_test.go b/x/users/types_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..13e6985e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/x/users/types_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+package users
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/x/auth"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/crypto/ed25519"
+
+	sdk "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func Test_NewUserEmptyPublicKey(t *testing.T) {
+	// Check that NewUser don't panick by checking that recover() result is nil
+	defer func() {
+		assert.Nil(t, recover())
+	}()
+	key := ed25519.GenPrivKey()
+	pub := key.PubKey()
+	addr := sdk.AccAddress(pub.Address())
+	acc := auth.ProtoBaseAccount()
+	acc.SetAddress(addr)
+	user := NewUser(acc)
+	assert.Nil(t, user.Pubkey)
+}