The boom in glucagon-like peptide-1s for weight loss has led some people to seek out other peptides in the hope that they too will have health benefits.
However, because these alternative compounds aren’t approved for medical use, you can’t acquire them with a prescription and a trip to Walgreens; people instead are turning to gray and black market sources to purchase them.
These sources, often online, tend to not be serviced by traditional payment processors, and so, according to a report from Bloomberg, these sites and the consumers who use them have turned to cryptocurrency to solve their payment needs.
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These research compounds, which are often marketed with health benefits like weight loss or longevity, are generally considered research chemicals and aren’t meant to be used for medicinal use.
According to data from Chainalysis, the annual run rate for crypto spent on gray market peptides has recently exceeded $100 million.
This same Chainalysis report also emphasized that, according to forums where users discuss these compounds, there have been problems with the purity and safety of compounds that users have received.
Crypto, $BTC in particular, has been marketed since the beginning as a censorship-resistant payment tool. Useful, in comparison to other payment methods, when the payment in question is one that the state, payment processors, or banks don’t want to occur.
This is why crypto was useful for various dark markets like Silk Road and why it’s is now useful for those interested in obtaining peptides not approved for human beings.