diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 719b0856cb..63449c0567 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -76,12 +76,14 @@ geth_steps: &geth_steps
           - cache-{{ .Environment.CIRCLE_JOB }}-{{ checksum "setup.py" }}-{{ checksum "tox.ini" }}
     - run:
         name: install dependencies
-        command: pip install --user tox
+        command: |
+          pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install --user tox
     - run:
         name: build geth if missing
         command: |
           mkdir -p $HOME/.ethash
-          pip install --user py-geth>=<< pipeline.parameters.pygeth_version >>
+          pip install --user "py-geth>=<< pipeline.parameters.pygeth_version >>"
           export GOROOT=/usr/local/go
           echo << pipeline.parameters.geth_version >>
           export GETH_BINARY="$HOME/.py-geth/geth-<< pipeline.parameters.geth_version >>/bin/geth"
diff --git a/newsfragments/2898.internal.rst b/newsfragments/2898.internal.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f0e290dbf9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/2898.internal.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Update ``geth_steps`` in CircleCI builds to pip install the proper version of ``py-geth``.