diff --git a/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/app.go b/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/app.go
index ec9081e9594..d3794fb8896 100644
--- a/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/app.go
+++ b/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/app.go
@@ -741,6 +741,10 @@ func NewSimApp(
 	}
 	reflectionv1.RegisterReflectionServiceServer(app.GRPCQueryRouter(), reflectionSvc)
 
+	// registerUpgradeHandlers is used for registering any on-chain upgrades.
+	// Make sure it's called after `app.ModuleManager` and `app.configurator` are set.
+	app.registerUpgradeHandlers()
+
 	// add test gRPC service for testing gRPC queries in isolation
 	testpb.RegisterQueryServer(app.GRPCQueryRouter(), testpb.QueryImpl{})
 
diff --git a/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/upgrades.go b/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/upgrades.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b33d1849e3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/light-clients/08-wasm/testing/simapp/upgrades.go
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package simapp
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	storetypes "cosmossdk.io/store/types"
+	circuittypes "cosmossdk.io/x/circuit/types"
+	upgradetypes "cosmossdk.io/x/upgrade/types"
+
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/types/module"
+)
+
+const (
+	IBCWasmUpgrade = "ibcwasm-v8"
+)
+
+// registerUpgradeHandlers registers all supported upgrade handlers
+func (app *SimApp) registerUpgradeHandlers() {
+	app.UpgradeKeeper.SetUpgradeHandler(
+		IBCWasmUpgrade,
+		createWasmStoreUpgradeHandler(app.ModuleManager, app.configurator),
+	)
+
+	upgradeInfo, err := app.UpgradeKeeper.ReadUpgradeInfoFromDisk()
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
+	if upgradeInfo.Name == IBCWasmUpgrade && !app.UpgradeKeeper.IsSkipHeight(upgradeInfo.Height) {
+		storeUpgrades := storetypes.StoreUpgrades{
+			Added: []string{
+				circuittypes.ModuleName,
+			},
+		}
+		// configure store loader that checks if version == upgradeHeight and applies store upgrades
+		app.SetStoreLoader(upgradetypes.UpgradeStoreLoader(upgradeInfo.Height, &storeUpgrades))
+	}
+}
+
+// createWasmStoreUpgradeHandler creates an upgrade handler for the 08-wasm ibc-go/v8 SimApp upgrade.
+func createWasmStoreUpgradeHandler(mm *module.Manager, configurator module.Configurator) upgradetypes.UpgradeHandler {
+	return func(ctx context.Context, _ upgradetypes.Plan, vm module.VersionMap) (module.VersionMap, error) {
+		return mm.RunMigrations(ctx, configurator, vm)
+	}
+}