diff --git a/web3/gas_strategies/rpc.py b/web3/gas_strategies/rpc.py
index 23660ff3e2..22ffdb5073 100644
--- a/web3/gas_strategies/rpc.py
+++ b/web3/gas_strategies/rpc.py
@@ -5,9 +5,6 @@
 from web3 import (
     Web3,
 )
-from web3._utils.rpc_abi import (
-    RPC,
-)
 from web3.types import (
     TxParams,
     Wei,
@@ -20,4 +17,4 @@ def rpc_gas_price_strategy(
     """
     A simple gas price strategy deriving it's value from the eth_gasPrice JSON-RPC call.
     """
-    return w3.manager.request_blocking(RPC.eth_gasPrice, [])
+    return w3.eth.gas_price
diff --git a/web3/middleware/gas_price_strategy.py b/web3/middleware/gas_price_strategy.py
index 9abdfb6b28..29c20dabc2 100644
--- a/web3/middleware/gas_price_strategy.py
+++ b/web3/middleware/gas_price_strategy.py
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
 from eth_utils.toolz import (
     assoc,
 )
+from web3._utils.method_formatters import (
+    to_integer_if_hex,
+)
 
 from web3._utils.utility_methods import (
     all_in_dict,
@@ -45,7 +48,9 @@ def validate_transaction_params(
         and "gasPrice" not in transaction
         and none_in_dict(DYNAMIC_FEE_TXN_PARAMS, transaction)
     ):
-        transaction = assoc(transaction, "gasPrice", hex(strategy_based_gas_price))
+        transaction = assoc(
+            transaction, "gasPrice", to_integer_if_hex(strategy_based_gas_price)
+        )
 
     # legacy and dynamic fee tx variables used:
     if "gasPrice" in transaction and any_in_dict(DYNAMIC_FEE_TXN_PARAMS, transaction):