diff --git a/web3.js/src/publickey.js b/web3.js/src/publickey.js
index 9003b86ccf..3af8d5ec4b 100644
--- a/web3.js/src/publickey.js
+++ b/web3.js/src/publickey.js
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ export class PublicKey {
    * Return the base-58 representation of the public key
    */
   toBuffer(): Buffer {
-    const b = this._bn.toBuffer();
+    const b = this._bn.toArrayLike(Buffer);
     if (b.length === 32) {
       return b;
     }