diff --git a/src/admin/populate.rs b/src/admin/populate.rs
index fa81b75bd37..bea2c061383 100644
--- a/src/admin/populate.rs
+++ b/src/admin/populate.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 use crate::{db, schema::version_downloads};
 
-use crate::tasks::spawn_blocking;
 use diesel::prelude::*;
-use rand::{thread_rng, Rng};
+use diesel_async::scoped_futures::ScopedFutureExt;
+use diesel_async::{AsyncConnection, AsyncPgConnection, RunQueryDsl};
+use rand::rngs::StdRng;
+use rand::{Rng, SeedableRng};
 
 #[derive(clap::Parser, Debug)]
 #[command(
@@ -15,19 +17,17 @@ pub struct Opts {
 }
 
 pub async fn run(opts: Opts) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
-    spawn_blocking(move || {
-        let mut conn = db::oneoff_connection()?;
-        conn.transaction(|conn| update(opts, conn))?;
-        Ok(())
-    })
-    .await
+    let mut conn = db::oneoff_async_connection().await?;
+    conn.transaction(|conn| update(opts, conn).scope_boxed())
+        .await?;
+    Ok(())
 }
 
-fn update(opts: Opts, conn: &mut PgConnection) -> QueryResult<()> {
+async fn update(opts: Opts, conn: &mut AsyncPgConnection) -> QueryResult<()> {
     use diesel::dsl::*;
 
     for id in opts.version_ids {
-        let mut rng = thread_rng();
+        let mut rng = StdRng::from_entropy();
         let mut dls = rng.gen_range(5_000i32..10_000);
 
         for day in 0..90 {
@@ -39,7 +39,8 @@ fn update(opts: Opts, conn: &mut PgConnection) -> QueryResult<()> {
                     version_downloads::downloads.eq(dls),
                     version_downloads::date.eq(date(now - day.days())),
                 ))
-                .execute(conn)?;
+                .execute(conn)
+                .await?;
         }
     }
     Ok(())