Crypto-tracked peptide sales top $10M monthly, Chainalysis finds
At least 50 Chinese chemical companies that have sold fentanyl precursors are now selling unregulated peptides to U.S. and global buyers, according to blockchain analytics firms tracking the trade. Some of the manufacturers have been indicted in the U.S. for their role in the global fentanyl trade.
The findings illustrate how production capacity that once supplied Mexican drug cartels is being redirected at a growing wellness market. U.S. regulators have said they are concerned about the sale of unapproved peptide products to American consumers.
TRM Labs, one of the analytics firms, has been tracking more than 200 companies that have sold fentanyl precursors. Of those, at least 50 are currently selling peptides, a number that has been growing in recent months, the firm said. Based on cryptocurrency payments TRM has traced, buyers of the products from these companies are in the U.S. and elsewhere.
A growing number of Chinese chemical manufacturers that have supplied fentanyl precursors to drug cartels are now capitalizing on the peptide craze in the U.S. and elsewhere, selling unregulated substances that promise to tan skin, repair tissue and help with weight loss, according to advertisements from the vendors and the analytics firms that track cryptocurrency payments for such products. Some of the manufacturers have been indicted in the U.S. for their role in the global fentanyl trade, but consumers would not know that from their advertisements, which profess high-quality ingredients and rigorous quality control.
Most of the substances being marketed as peptides are unapproved drugs. As large pharmaceutical companies stay on the sidelines, black-market manufacturers, many in China, have filled the void. The suppliers are also competing with companies that sell Food and Drug Administration-approved peptide-based drugs by offering unapproved versions of weight-loss GLP-1s at much lower prices. The transformative weight-loss effects of GLP-1-based medications have led consumers to question what other substances they could inject in a quest for self-optimization.
Companies in China have long been the main producers of the chemical building blocks used to make fentanyl. As with peptides, these precursors were openly sold online. Buyers included drug cartels, which went on to make the drug and distribute it across the U.S. For years, the U.S. pressed China to act against the precursor producers. Chinese authorities have slowly taken steps to shut down sellers and enforce export controls on the substances. Many, however, have survived.
Chinese drug precursor manufacturers “have the know-how and the equipment to manufacture every single known substance on earth. And nowadays there is a lot of demand for peptides, so peptides it is,” said Alois Afilipoaie, a senior blockchain analyst at TRM.
One Chinese company, Anhui Rencheng Technology, was indicted in 2023 by the Justice Department, which accused it of providing fentanyl precursors used by the Sinaloa and other Mexican drug cartels. In the indictment, prosecutors said Anhui Rencheng chemists provided buyers with instructions on how to make fentanyl. The company is now selling a peptide known for its tanning effects, called Melanotan II, and semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic — in salt form, according to its website. Anhui Rencheng did not reply to a request for comment.
Founded in 2015 in Hefei, a city northwest of Shanghai, Anhui Rencheng calls itself a professional chemistry manufacturer that prides itself “on the variety and quality of their products, which are sourced from the best possible raw materials and undergo a rigorous quality control process,” according to the website, which is in English and provides Chinese phone numbers of sales agents. The company says it guarantees deliveries of its products, including to the U.S., and advertises warehouses in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Germany. “We have powerful customs clearance agencies in these countries, and our customs clearance company will clear your parcel without any customs issues,” the company states on its website. Several numbers and emails provided on the website are no longer in use, and a request sent through an online form has not been answered. The company is also advertising a fentanyl precursor called 1-Boc-4-piperidone and a highly potent synthetic opioid called protonitazene, which is stronger than fentanyl and has caused deaths in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Analytics firm Chainalysis reported that before 2025, the gray-market peptide ecosystem was a niche and underground, averaging just $200,000 in monthly purchases done using cryptocurrencies. In 2025, the market began to grow, and this year, peptide purchases in crypto have surpassed $10 million a month. “Some Chinese chemical manufacturers, facing increasing pressure from international law enforcement over the illicit drug precursor trade, have realized that the peptide market is a highly profitable and legally ambiguous next step,” Chainalysis said in a report.
The products enter the U.S. market, at least in part, through a smuggling scheme known as “master cartons.” Chinese shippers take orders from U.S. buyers and package multiple individual orders into a larger box mislabeled as containing legal goods, such as snacks. Once in the U.S., an associate distributes the packages inside the carton. Buyers may not know their peptides originate from China.
In December, Cincinnati Customs and Border Protection officers identified a master carton scheme from a Chinese shipper. The officers have since thwarted roughly 400 master carton smuggling attempts, involving nearly 6,000 pre-labeled shipments of peptides. Nationwide, the number of illicit pharmaceutical shipments intercepted across the U.S. has jumped this fiscal year. From October 2025 to the end of August, there were more than 2,400 seizures of noncompliant or fraudulent products, involving more than 130,000 vials, according to CBP, which declined to comment on specific companies or ongoing investigations.
Emily Hilliard, a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson, said the “FDA is concerned about the sale of unapproved drug products, including products marketed as peptides, to U.S. consumers.” The FDA works with federal agencies on investigations and enforcement actions, she added. Hilliard also said the agency monitors the marketplace and has taken action against the sale of unapproved peptide products.
In online forums, users trade tips and names of peptide suppliers both in the U.S. and abroad. Some U.S. buyers told The Wall Street Journal they chose Chinese suppliers because they were cheaper. While some med spas, telehealth companies and alternative doctors have been supplying unapproved peptides to patients, many Americans order directly from online sellers. The products, which are often labeled “for research use only” or “not for human consumption,” are powdered substances that must be reconstituted with bacteriostatic water and injected. Some are portioned out in small vials, while others are reconstituted from raw ingredients by agents or resellers who sell the peptides ready to use.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has said he is a “big fan” of peptides, and influencers, podcasters and alternative-medicine doctors have also endorsed them. The products’ purported benefits are largely anecdotal. Peptides are short chains of amino acids that can act as signaling messengers — telling the body, for instance, to produce more growth hormone or repair tissue. The term technically encompasses a broad category of products that includes FDA-approved drugs such as insulin and Ozempic, but it has become shorthand for substances people are injecting that have not undergone FDA approval.
“In this era of health misinformation and distrust of institutions, people don’t appreciate the safety provided by the FDA regulatory and inspection system,” said Shabbir Imber Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, a public-health coalition focused on supply-chain safety. “That lack of understanding of risk allows them to leave the safety of the regulated system without knowing what is lost when they do so.”
Another Chinese company indicted in 2023 by the U.S. for its alleged role in the fentanyl trade, Anhui Ruihan Technology, is actively advertising Retatrutide — Eli Lilly’s next-generation weight-loss drug that has not yet been approved by the FDA — on a platform called Chemical Book, according to an ad provided by TRM. Attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful.