diff --git a/monero/backends/jsonrpc.py b/monero/backends/jsonrpc.py
index 7203ae4..4247a4d 100644
--- a/monero/backends/jsonrpc.py
+++ b/monero/backends/jsonrpc.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import operator
 import json
 import logging
 import requests
+import six
 
 from .. import exceptions
 from ..account import Account
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@ class JSONRPCDaemon(object):
 
     def send_transaction(self, blob, relay=True):
         res = self.raw_request('/sendrawtransaction', {
-            'tx_as_hex': binascii.hexlify(blob),
+            'tx_as_hex': six.ensure_text(binascii.hexlify(blob)),
             'do_not_relay': not relay})
         if res['status'] == 'OK':
             return res
diff --git a/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/0e8fa9202e0773333360e5b9e8fb8e94272c16a8a58b6fe7cf3b4327158e3a44.tx b/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/0e8fa9202e0773333360e5b9e8fb8e94272c16a8a58b6fe7cf3b4327158e3a44.tx
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e4ad39
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/0e8fa9202e0773333360e5b9e8fb8e94272c16a8a58b6fe7cf3b4327158e3a44.tx differ
diff --git a/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/test_send_transaction.json b/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/test_send_transaction.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5388e75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/data/test_jsonrpcdaemon/test_send_transaction.json
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+{
+  "credits": 0,
+  "double_spend": false,
+  "fee_too_low": false,
+  "invalid_input": false,
+  "invalid_output": false,
+  "low_mixin": false,
+  "not_rct": false,
+  "not_relayed": false,
+  "overspend": false,
+  "reason": "",
+  "sanity_check_failed": false,
+  "status": "OK",
+  "too_big": false,
+  "too_few_outputs": false,
+  "top_hash": "",
+  "untrusted": false
+}
diff --git a/tests/test_jsonrpcdaemon.py b/tests/test_jsonrpcdaemon.py
index 4e0e065..f8dd6dd 100644
--- a/tests/test_jsonrpcdaemon.py
+++ b/tests/test_jsonrpcdaemon.py
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 import decimal
+import os
 import responses
 
 from monero.const import NET_STAGE
 from monero.daemon import Daemon
 from monero.backends.jsonrpc import JSONRPCDaemon
+from monero.transaction import Transaction
 
 from .base import JSONTestCase
 
@@ -11,6 +13,7 @@ class JSONRPCDaemonTestCase(JSONTestCase):
     jsonrpc_url = 'http://127.0.0.1:18081/json_rpc'
     mempool_url = 'http://127.0.0.1:18081/get_transaction_pool'
     transactions_url = 'http://127.0.0.1:18081/get_transactions'
+    sendrawtransaction_url = 'http://127.0.0.1:18081/sendrawtransaction'
     data_subdir = 'test_jsonrpcdaemon'
 
     def setUp(self):
@@ -110,3 +113,18 @@ class JSONRPCDaemonTestCase(JSONTestCase):
                 "035a1cfadd2f80124998f5af8c7bb6703743a4f322d0a20b7f7b502956ada59d")
         self.assertIsNone(txs[3].height)
         self.assertEqual(txs[3].size, 2724)
+
+    @responses.activate
+    def test_send_transaction(self):
+        path = os.path.join(
+            os.path.dirname(__file__),
+            "data",
+            self.data_subdir,
+            "0e8fa9202e0773333360e5b9e8fb8e94272c16a8a58b6fe7cf3b4327158e3a44.tx")
+        responses.add(responses.POST, self.sendrawtransaction_url,
+            json=self._read('test_send_transaction.json'),
+            status=200)
+        tx = Transaction(
+            blob=open(path, "rb").read())
+        rsp = self.daemon.send_transaction(tx)
+        self.assertEqual(rsp["status"], "OK")
diff --git a/utils/pushtx.py b/utils/pushtx.py
index 0a1419a..5374d50 100755
--- a/utils/pushtx.py
+++ b/utils/pushtx.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import logging
 import operator
 import re
 import sys
+import six
 
 from monero.backends.jsonrpc import JSONRPCDaemon
 from monero.daemon import Daemon
@@ -36,9 +37,9 @@ elif args.verbosity > 1:
     level = logging.DEBUG
 logging.basicConfig(level=level, format="%(asctime)-15s %(message)s")
 if args.tx_filenames:
-    blobs = [(f, open(f, 'r').read()) for f in args.tx_filenames]
+    blobs = [(f, open(f, 'rb').read()) for f in args.tx_filenames]
 else:
-    blobs = [('transaction', sys.stdin.read())]
+    blobs = [('transaction', sys.stdin.buffer.read() if six.PY3 else sys.stdin.read())]
 d = Daemon(JSONRPCDaemon(timeout=args.timeout, proxy_url=args.proxy_url, **args.daemon_rpc_url))
 for name, blob in blobs:
     logging.debug("Sending {}".format(name))
diff --git a/utils/transfer.py b/utils/transfer.py
index 9847e2c..6487711 100755
--- a/utils/transfer.py
+++ b/utils/transfer.py
@@ -63,6 +63,6 @@ for tx in txns:
     if args.outdir:
         outname = os.path.join(args.outdir, tx.hash + '.tx')
         outfile = open(outname, 'wb')
-        outfile.write(tx.blob.encode())
+        outfile.write(tx.blob)
         outfile.close()
         print(u"Transaction saved to {}".format(outname))