“To scale, the gray-market peptide trade adopted cryptocurrency as its backbone,” Chainalysis said in a report.

The gray market peptide trade is now a $100M+ on-chain economy. Chainalysis traced the cartel chemists pivoting to looksmaxxing buyers.

Some of the China-based sellers have pivoted from fentanyl to peptides.

“To scale, the gray-market peptide trade adopted cryptocurrency as its backbone,” Chainalysis said in a report.

Demand for peptides fueled by the "looksmaxxing" trend has spawned a $100 million gray market paid for primarily with crypto.

Chainalysis finds gray market peptide vendor crypto inflows surged 159% to $32 million in Q1 2026, with stablecoins overtaking Bitcoin for larger