diff --git a/rai/node/lmdb.cpp b/rai/node/lmdb.cpp
index 882e0531..4e1f576e 100644
--- a/rai/node/lmdb.cpp
+++ b/rai/node/lmdb.cpp
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ rai::mdb_env::mdb_env (bool & error_a, boost::filesystem::path const & path_a, i
 			// It seems if there's ever more threads than mdb_env_set_maxreaders has read slots available, we get failures on transaction creation unless MDB_NOTLS is specified
 			// This can happen if something like 256 io_threads are specified in the node config
 			auto status4 (mdb_env_open (environment, path_a.string ().c_str (), MDB_NOSUBDIR | MDB_NOTLS, 00600));
+			release_assert (status4 == 0);
 			error_a = status4 != 0;
 		}
 		else