diff --git a/state/store.go b/state/store.go
index 4f47ace5f..18476660f 100644
--- a/state/store.go
+++ b/state/store.go
@@ -194,21 +194,12 @@ func LoadValidators(db dbm.DB, height int64) (*types.ValidatorSet, error) {
 		lastStoredHeight := lastStoredHeightFor(height, valInfo.LastHeightChanged)
 		valInfo2 := loadValidatorsInfo(db, lastStoredHeight)
 		if valInfo2 == nil || valInfo2.ValidatorSet == nil {
-			// TODO (melekes): remove the below if condition in the 0.33 major
-			// release and just panic. Old chains might panic otherwise if they
-			// haven't saved validators at intermediate (%valSetCheckpointInterval)
-			// height yet.
-			// https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/3543
-			valInfo2 = loadValidatorsInfo(db, valInfo.LastHeightChanged)
-			lastStoredHeight = valInfo.LastHeightChanged
-			if valInfo2 == nil || valInfo2.ValidatorSet == nil {
-				panic(
-					fmt.Sprintf("Couldn't find validators at height %d (height %d was originally requested)",
-						lastStoredHeight,
-						height,
-					),
-				)
-			}
+			panic(
+				fmt.Sprintf("Couldn't find validators at height %d (height %d was originally requested)",
+					lastStoredHeight,
+					height,
+				),
+			)
 		}
 		valInfo2.ValidatorSet.IncrementProposerPriority(int(height - lastStoredHeight)) // mutate
 		valInfo = valInfo2
diff --git a/state/store_test.go b/state/store_test.go
index 0a190446e..5b201b202 100644
--- a/state/store_test.go
+++ b/state/store_test.go
@@ -28,25 +28,6 @@ func TestStoreLoadValidators(t *testing.T) {
 
 	// 2) LoadValidators loads validators using a checkpoint height
 
-	// TODO(melekes): REMOVE in 0.33 release
-	// https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/issues/3543
-	// for releases prior to v0.31.4, it uses last height changed
-	valInfo := &sm.ValidatorsInfo{
-		LastHeightChanged: sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval,
-	}
-	stateDB.Set(sm.CalcValidatorsKey(sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval), valInfo.Bytes())
-	assert.NotPanics(t, func() {
-		sm.SaveValidatorsInfo(stateDB, sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval+1, 1, vals)
-		loadedVals, err := sm.LoadValidators(stateDB, sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval+1)
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatal(err)
-		}
-		if loadedVals.Size() == 0 {
-			t.Fatal("Expected validators to be non-empty")
-		}
-	})
-	// ENDREMOVE
-
 	sm.SaveValidatorsInfo(stateDB, sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval, 1, vals)
 
 	loadedVals, err = sm.LoadValidators(stateDB, sm.ValSetCheckpointInterval)