diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 3d3e32e..c4b1e83 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -106,8 +106,7 @@ target_link_libraries(
   PRIVATE
     cpr::cpr
     oxen::logging
-    gmp
-    gmpxx
+    gmp::gmp
 )
 if(${PROJECT_NAME}_ENABLE_SIGNER)
     target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC secp256k1)
diff --git a/external/CMakeLists.txt b/external/CMakeLists.txt
index 219471a..a0a30e3 100644
--- a/external/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/external/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -62,7 +62,8 @@ endif()
 # GMP
 #
 
-pkg_check_modules(GMP gmp IMPORTED_TARGET REQUIRED)
-add_library(gmp INTERFACE)
-target_link_libraries(gmp INTERFACE PkgConfig::GMP)
-message(STATUS "Found gmp ${GMP_VERSION}")
+if(NOT TARGET gmp::gmp)
+    pkg_check_modules(GMP gmp IMPORTED_TARGET REQUIRED GLOBAL)
+    add_library(gmp::gmp ALIAS PkgConfig::GMP)
+    message(STATUS "Found gmp ${GMP_VERSION}")
+endif()
diff --git a/src/provider.cpp b/src/provider.cpp
index b0c5a24..f715359 100644
--- a/src/provider.cpp
+++ b/src/provider.cpp
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 #include "ethyl/provider.hpp"
 #include "ethyl/utils.hpp"
 
-#include <gmpxx.h>
+#include <gmp.h>
 
 namespace
 {
@@ -704,22 +704,23 @@ void Provider::getBalanceAsync(std::string_view address, optional_callback<std::
             return;
         }
 
-        try
-        {
-            std::string balanceHex = r->get<std::string>();
+        std::string balanceHex = r->get<std::string>();
 
-            // Convert balance from hex to GMP multi-precision integer
-            mpz_class balance;
-            balance.set_str(balanceHex, 0); // 0 as base to automatically pick up hex from the prepended 0x of our balanceHex string
+        // Convert balance from hex to GMP multi-precision integer
 
-            user_cb(balance.get_str());
-            return;
-        }
-        catch (const std::exception& e)
-        {
-            log::warning(logcat, "eth_getBalance response, failed to parse bigint: {}", r->get<std::string>());
-            user_cb(std::nullopt);
+        std::optional<std::string> bal10;
+        mpz_t balance;
+        // 0 as base to automatically pick up hex from the prepended 0x of our balanceHex string
+        if (int rc = mpz_init_set_str(balance, balanceHex.c_str(), 0); rc == 0) {
+            bal10.emplace();
+            bal10->resize(mpz_sizeinbase(balance, 10) + 1);
+            mpz_get_str(bal10->data(), 10, balance);
+            bal10->resize(std::strlen(bal10->c_str()));
+        } else {
+            log::warning(logcat, "eth_getBalance response, failed to parse bigint: {}", balanceHex);
         }
+        mpz_clear(balance);
+        user_cb(std::move(bal10));
     };
     makeJsonRpcRequest("eth_getBalance", params, std::move(cb));
 }