{"id":98012,"date":"2026-06-05T15:37:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=98012"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T12:40:19","slug":"chainalysis-uncovers-100-million-gray-market-for-peptides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/chainalysis-uncovers-100-million-gray-market-for-peptides\/","title":{"rendered":"Chainalysis Uncovers $100 Million Gray Market for Peptides"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-text-wrappers-disclamer article_disclamer\"><span class=\"gtb_text-wrappers_disclamer_head\">Disclaimer<\/span><\/p>\n<p>ForkLog is categorically against drugs and does not promote their sale or purchase. All materials are provided for informational purposes only.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chainalysis analysts have recorded an explosive growth in the turnover of the gray market for peptides. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chainalysis.com\/blog\/gray-market-peptide-crypto-boom\/\">report<\/a>, the annual volume of on-chain payments in this sector has exceeded $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>Experts noted that in the first quarter of 2026 alone, the inflow of funds jumped by 159% \u2014 from $12 million to $32 million. Forecasts suggest that in the second quarter, the figure will reach $39 million.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-7f29345c651f8b7a-6264109261362487.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026-06-05 145537\" class=\"wp-image-281106\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Chainalysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Analysts attribute the growing popularity of these substances to the shortage and high cost of official weight-loss drugs (like Ozempic). Due to banking restrictions on the sale of non-prescription compounds, the industry has almost entirely shifted to using Bitcoin and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-are-stablecoins\">stablecoins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TikTok and the &#8216;Looksmaxxing&#8217; Ideology<\/h2>\n<p>Specialists identified three stages of market development. Until 2025, it remained niche with an average inflow of about $200,000 per month.<\/p>\n<p>This was followed by a surge of interest amid political events in the US \u2014 particularly, Robert Kennedy Jr.&#8217;s promotion of the Make America Healthy Again (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/maha\/index.html\">MAHA<\/a>) initiative. However, the key catalyst came at the end of 2025, when the topic of peptides went viral on TikTok within the &#8216;looksmaxxing&#8217; subculture (the pursuit of radical appearance improvement).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-12dfacb12f15dfc1-6264141907693650.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026-06-05 150239\" class=\"wp-image-281107\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Chainalysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Against this backdrop, average monthly revenues for sellers rose to $9.9 million. According to the report, influencers actively promote Chinese suppliers, ignoring the risks of side effects. Meanwhile, minors are increasingly found in communities and Discord channels, seeking ways to bypass <span data-descr=\"know your customer\" class=\"old_tooltip\">KYC<\/span> to purchase substances.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Decline in Safety Controls<\/h2>\n<p>As an indicator of buyer behavior, Chainalysis cited data from Janoshik laboratory (Czech Republic), which specializes in testing the chemical purity of substances. Since 2023, wallets associated with it have received over $12 million in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-d6c48bda6e4b3b43-6264182274226004.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026-06-05 150451\" class=\"wp-image-281108\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Chainalysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Despite the overall revenue growth of the laboratory, average spending on substance testing per buyer fell by 88% \u2014 to $8. Consumers increasingly trust certificates published by sellers themselves. Analysts warned: such documents often confirm the purity of the substance but not its sterility, which is deadly dangerous for injections.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-ec2f84ad63e59867-6264222870313929.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026-06-05 151215\" class=\"wp-image-281110\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Chainalysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Links to Drug Cartels<\/h2>\n<p>Chainalysis found that several major peptide suppliers are Chinese chemical companies that previously supplied drug cartels with precursors for fentanyl and amphetamine. Under regulatory pressure, they shifted to a less legally risky but more profitable D2C format.<\/p>\n<p>The report mentions two companies:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Shanghai Sigma Audley:<\/strong> previously identified as a supplier of fentanyl precursors, including for darknet marketplaces. In 2025, the company began selling &#8216;cosmetic&#8217; peptides on Reddit, using the same contact phone number as in ads for drug raw materials;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bigreat Technology: <\/strong>a supplier of reagents for synthetic drugs focusing on the Russian and Kazakh markets. Under the pseudonym Zhengzhou DEPU Technology, the firm switched to retailing weight-loss substances for cryptocurrency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-261b3644b32b6b2d-6264241411554845.webp\" alt=\"9-1500x1146_1\" class=\"wp-image-281111\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Chainalysis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Analysts emphasized that blockchain transparency allows tracking such transformations of illegal supply chains in real-time.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2020 and 2025, the volume of money laundering through cryptocurrencies <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/chainalysis-highlights-dominance-of-chinese-networks-in-laundering-82-billion-via-cryptocurrencies\">increased<\/a> from $10 billion to $82 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chainalysis analysts have recorded an explosive growth in the turnover of the gray market for peptides. According to the report, the annual volume of on-chain payments in this sector has exceeded $100 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Chainalysis reports $100 million in gray market peptide transactions.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[274,1269,1252],"class_list":["post-98012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-chainalysis","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"5","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Chainalysis reports $100 million in gray market peptide transactions.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98014,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98012\/revisions\/98014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}