diff --git a/x/ibc/applications/transfer/types/trace.go b/x/ibc/applications/transfer/types/trace.go
index 2e6ccded90e..d465dcbc29b 100644
--- a/x/ibc/applications/transfer/types/trace.go
+++ b/x/ibc/applications/transfer/types/trace.go
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ func ValidatePrefixedDenom(denom string) error {
 //  - A valid base denomination (eg: 'uatom')
 //  - A valid fungible token representation (i.e 'ibc/{hash}') per ADR 001 https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/master/docs/architecture/adr-001-coin-source-tracing.md
 func ValidateIBCDenom(denom string) error {
+	if err := sdk.ValidateDenom(denom); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	denomSplit := strings.SplitN(denom, "/", 2)
 
 	switch {
@@ -173,7 +177,7 @@ func ValidateIBCDenom(denom string) error {
 		return sdkerrors.Wrapf(ErrInvalidDenomForTransfer, "denomination should be prefixed with the format 'ibc/{hash(trace + \"/\" + %s)}'", denom)
 
 	case denomSplit[0] == denom && strings.TrimSpace(denom) != "":
-		return sdk.ValidateDenom(denom)
+		return nil
 	}
 
 	if _, err := ParseHexHash(denomSplit[1]); err != nil {