diff --git a/silverback/main.py b/silverback/main.py
index eccedd5e..c403c448 100644
--- a/silverback/main.py
+++ b/silverback/main.py
@@ -125,7 +125,9 @@ def __init__(self, settings: Settings | None = None):
         ):
             settings.NEW_BLOCK_TIMEOUT = int(timedelta(days=1).total_seconds())
 
-        settings_str = "\n  ".join(f'{key}="{val}"' for key, val in settings.dict().items() if val)
+        settings_str = "\n  ".join(
+            f'{key}="{val}"' for key, val in settings.model_dump().items() if val
+        )
         logger.info(f"Loading Silverback Bot with settings:\n  {settings_str}")
 
         self.broker = settings.get_broker()
diff --git a/silverback/middlewares.py b/silverback/middlewares.py
index ef97206c..37fe5f09 100644
--- a/silverback/middlewares.py
+++ b/silverback/middlewares.py
@@ -24,12 +24,15 @@ def compute_block_time() -> int:
         self.block_time = self.chain_manager.provider.network.block_time or compute_block_time()
 
     def pre_send(self, message: TaskiqMessage) -> TaskiqMessage:
-        # TODO: Necessary because bytes/HexBytes doesn't encode/deocde well for some reason
+        # TODO: Necessary because bytes/HexBytes doesn't encode/decode well for some reason
         def fix_dict(data: dict, recurse_count: int = 0) -> dict:
             fixed_data: dict[str, Any] = {}
             for name, value in data.items():
                 if isinstance(value, bytes):
                     fixed_data[name] = to_hex(value)
+                elif name == "transaction_hash" and isinstance(value, list):
+                    # TODO: Why is it a list now? (as of Ape v0.8.19ish)
+                    fixed_data[name] = to_hex(bytearray(value))
                 elif isinstance(value, dict):
                     if recurse_count > 3:
                         raise RecursionError("Event object is too deep")
diff --git a/silverback/state.py b/silverback/state.py
index 22591ffe..fe0914a6 100644
--- a/silverback/state.py
+++ b/silverback/state.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ async def init(self, bot_id: SilverbackID) -> StateSnapshot | None:
         self.state_backup_file = data_folder / "state.json"
 
         return (
-            StateSnapshot.parse_file(self.state_backup_file)
+            StateSnapshot.model_validate_json(self.state_backup_file.read_text())
             if self.state_backup_file.exists()
             else None
         )