diff --git a/.changeset/five-needles-mix.md b/.changeset/five-needles-mix.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..623ceca775a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/five-needles-mix.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@thirdweb-dev/auth": patch
+"thirdweb": patch
+---
+
+Fix deploy/release CLI uploads
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/common/processor.ts b/packages/cli/src/common/processor.ts
index 22b00c580a2..776b82233f6 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/common/processor.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/common/processor.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { THIRDWEB_URL, cliVersion } from "../constants/urls";
+import { cliVersion, THIRDWEB_URL } from "../constants/urls";
 import build from "../core/builder/build";
 import detect from "../core/detection/detect";
 import { execute } from "../core/helpers/exec";
@@ -142,10 +142,9 @@ export async function processProject(
     const metadataURIs = await Promise.all(
       selectedContracts.map(async (c) => {
         logger.debug(`Uploading ${c.name}...`);
-        const hash = await storage.upload(c.metadata, {
+        return await storage.upload(JSON.parse(c.metadata), {
           uploadWithoutDirectory: true,
         });
-        return `ipfs://${hash}`;
       }),
     );
 
@@ -173,15 +172,13 @@ export async function processProject(
     let combinedURIs: string[] = [];
     if (combinedContents.length === 1) {
       // use upload single if only one contract to get a clean IPFS hash
-      const metadataUri = await storage.upload(
-        JSON.stringify(combinedContents[0]),
-        { uploadWithoutDirectory: true },
-      );
+      const metadataUri = await storage.upload(combinedContents[0], {
+        uploadWithoutDirectory: true,
+      });
       combinedURIs.push(metadataUri);
     } else {
       // otherwise upload batch
-      const uris = await storage.uploadBatch(combinedContents);
-      combinedURIs = uris;
+      combinedURIs = await storage.uploadBatch(combinedContents);
     }
 
     loader.succeed("Upload successful");
diff --git a/packages/storage/src/core/storage.ts b/packages/storage/src/core/storage.ts
index 390fa1d1559..4923542b6af 100644
--- a/packages/storage/src/core/storage.ts
+++ b/packages/storage/src/core/storage.ts
@@ -69,7 +69,12 @@ export class ThirdwebStorage<T extends UploadOptions = IpfsUploadBatchOptions> {
     // Otherwise it is an array of JSON objects, so we have to prepare it first
     const metadata = (
       await this.uploadAndReplaceFilesWithHashes(data as Json[], options)
-    ).map((item) => JSON.stringify(item));
+    ).map((item) => {
+      if (typeof item === "string") {
+        return item;
+      }
+      return JSON.stringify(item);
+    });
 
     return this.uploader.uploadBatch(metadata, options);
   }