diff --git a/smoke-tests/images/fake-backend/build.gradle.kts b/smoke-tests/images/fake-backend/build.gradle.kts
index 128fdc22d2ce..60c20edc1515 100644
--- a/smoke-tests/images/fake-backend/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/smoke-tests/images/fake-backend/build.gradle.kts
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-  implementation("com.linecorp.armeria:armeria-grpc:1.32.5")
+  implementation("com.linecorp.armeria:armeria-grpc:1.33.0")
   implementation("io.opentelemetry.proto:opentelemetry-proto")
   runtimeOnly("org.slf4j:slf4j-simple")
 }
diff --git a/testing-common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/testing/junit/http/AbstractHttpServerTest.java b/testing-common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/testing/junit/http/AbstractHttpServerTest.java
index 4a10a62b6575..acf67191380d 100644
--- a/testing-common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/testing/junit/http/AbstractHttpServerTest.java
+++ b/testing-common/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/instrumentation/testing/junit/http/AbstractHttpServerTest.java
@@ -60,8 +60,9 @@
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.ChannelOption;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.ChannelPipeline;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.EventLoopGroup;
+import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.MultiThreadIoEventLoopGroup;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.SimpleChannelInboundHandler;
-import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoopGroup;
+import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.nio.NioIoHandler;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.socket.SocketChannel;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.channel.socket.nio.NioSocketChannel;
 import io.opentelemetry.testing.internal.io.netty.handler.codec.http.DefaultFullHttpRequest;
@@ -453,7 +454,7 @@ void httpPipelining() throws InterruptedException {
     TextMapSetter<DefaultFullHttpRequest> setter =
         (request, key, value) -> request.headers().set(key, value);
 
-    EventLoopGroup eventLoopGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup();
+    EventLoopGroup eventLoopGroup = new MultiThreadIoEventLoopGroup(NioIoHandler.newFactory());
     try {
       Bootstrap bootstrap = buildBootstrap(eventLoopGroup);
       Channel channel = bootstrap.connect(address.getHost(), port).sync().channel();
@@ -513,7 +514,7 @@ void requestWithNonStandardHttpMethod() throws InterruptedException {
     // test uses http 1.1
     assumeFalse(options.useHttp2);
 
-    EventLoopGroup eventLoopGroup = new NioEventLoopGroup();
+    EventLoopGroup eventLoopGroup = new MultiThreadIoEventLoopGroup(NioIoHandler.newFactory());
     try {
       Bootstrap bootstrap = buildBootstrap(eventLoopGroup);
       Channel channel = bootstrap.connect(address.getHost(), port).sync().channel();
diff --git a/testing/armeria-shaded-for-testing/build.gradle.kts b/testing/armeria-shaded-for-testing/build.gradle.kts
index 0002301bede9..3c90304844be 100644
--- a/testing/armeria-shaded-for-testing/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/testing/armeria-shaded-for-testing/build.gradle.kts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ plugins {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-  implementation("com.linecorp.armeria:armeria-junit5:1.32.5")
+  implementation("com.linecorp.armeria:armeria-junit5:1.33.0")
   implementation("com.google.errorprone:error_prone_annotations")
 }