Nitazenes are a class of highly potent synthetic opioids originally developed in the 1950s but never approved for medical use due to safety concerns. In recent years, illicit production and associated health harms have increased globally, including in Australia, where nitazene detections and related incidents are rising.

Drug Trends has identified, crawled (or ‘scraped’), extracted, categorised and analysed drug listings on cryptomarkets on a regular basis since 1st February 2014. This bulletin extends on our previous monitoring of nitazene availability on cryptomarkets, aiming to describe listing trends and identify the most frequently listed compounds from September 2021 to August 2025.

Key findings

• Data on drug listings were collected for four years from 37 cryptomarkets (excluding Abacus and Televend), first twice a month for the period from September 2021 to May 2025 and then once per month from June to August 2025.
• A total of 5,945 listings selling nitazenes were identified. This constituted 0.16% of all drug listings in the 4-year period. The percentage (of all drug listings) and number of nitazene listings on the cryptomarkets fluctuated over time, varying between 0.06% and 0.29% with the lowest percentages at the beginning and end of the four-year period.
• Approximately 3 in 4 nitazene listings (75%) were offered as available for delivery to Australia, although this varied between 34% and 95%, with a notable decline in the last two years.
• There has been a shift in the origin of nitazene listings from Asia (predominantly China) to North America (predominantly the US) over the period from September 2021 to August 2025. North America was the primary geographic origin of nitazene listings by the end of 2023.
• Isotonitazene, protonitazene and metonitazene were the most frequently identified nitazenes in the four-year period; this was consistent when studying overall listings and specifically those which offered delivery to Australia.
• However, between 2021 to 2025, the variety and prevalence of specific nitazene types on cryptomarkets has changed, with compounds like etodesnitazene and metonitazene becoming less prominent while substances such as protonitazene, N-desethyl protonitazene and isotonitazepyne becoming more common.

Recommended citation

Man N, Chrzanowska A, Sutherland R, Sadaphale V, Barratt MJ, Bruno R, Peacock A. Availability of nitazenes for purchase in Australia and internationally via cryptomarkets, September 2021 – August 2025. Drug Trends Bulletin Series. Sydney: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney; 2025. Available from: doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/31698

Funding and copyright

Drug Trends is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing under the Drug and Alcohol Program.

©NDARC, UNSW SYDNEY 2025 

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