diff --git a/build/Common.nonprod.props b/build/Common.nonprod.props
index 58ff63eb96d..57593f6ca76 100644
--- a/build/Common.nonprod.props
+++ b/build/Common.nonprod.props
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
     <BenchmarkDotNetPkgVer>[0.12.1,0.13)</BenchmarkDotNetPkgVer>
     <CommandLineParserPkgVer>[2.3.0,3.0)</CommandLineParserPkgVer>
     <DotNetXUnitCliVer>[2.3.1,3.0)</DotNetXUnitCliVer>
-    <GoogleProtobufPkgVer>[3.13.0,4.0)</GoogleProtobufPkgVer>
+    <GoogleProtobufPkgVer>[3.15.5,4.0)</GoogleProtobufPkgVer>
     <GrpcAspNetCorePkgVer>[2.27.0,3.0)</GrpcAspNetCorePkgVer>
     <GrpcAspNetCoreServerPkgVer>[2.30.0, 3.0)</GrpcAspNetCoreServerPkgVer>
     <GrpcToolsPkgVer>[2.25.0,3.0)</GrpcToolsPkgVer>
diff --git a/build/Common.props b/build/Common.props
index 2bc3c531f61..5c9505ed4e0 100644
--- a/build/Common.props
+++ b/build/Common.props
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
       Refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/concepts/package-versioning for semver syntax.
     -->
     <MinVerPkgVer>[2.3.0,3.0)</MinVerPkgVer>
-    <GoogleProtobufPkgVer>[3.6.1,4.0)</GoogleProtobufPkgVer>
+    <GoogleProtobufPkgVer>[3.15.5,4.0)</GoogleProtobufPkgVer>
     <GrpcPkgVer>[2.23.0,3.0)</GrpcPkgVer>
     <GrpcNetClientPkgVer>[2.32.0,3.0)</GrpcNetClientPkgVer>
     <GrpcToolsPkgVer>[2.25.0,3.0)</GrpcToolsPkgVer>
diff --git a/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/CHANGELOG.md b/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/CHANGELOG.md
index dad06df3640..f45e4b7fcf3 100644
--- a/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ please check the latest changes
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+* Resolves `System.TypeInitializationException` exception when using the
+  exporter with an application that references Google.Protobuf 3.15. The OTLP
+  exporter now depends on Google.Protobuf 3.15.5 enabling the use of the new
+  `UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap` to avoid unnecessary allocations.
+  ([#1873](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-dotnet/pull/1873))
+
 * Null values in string arrays are preserved according to
   [spec](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/common/common.md).
   ([#1919](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-dotnet/pull/1919)) and
diff --git a/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/Implementation/ActivityExtensions.cs b/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/Implementation/ActivityExtensions.cs
index dca8e21890e..135a83d91ba 100644
--- a/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/Implementation/ActivityExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/OpenTelemetry.Exporter.OpenTelemetryProtocol/Implementation/ActivityExtensions.cs
@@ -37,7 +37,6 @@ internal static class ActivityExtensions
     {
         private static readonly ConcurrentBag<OtlpTrace.InstrumentationLibrarySpans> SpanListPool = new ConcurrentBag<OtlpTrace.InstrumentationLibrarySpans>();
         private static readonly Action<RepeatedField<OtlpTrace.Span>, int> RepeatedFieldOfSpanSetCountAction = CreateRepeatedFieldOfSpanSetCountAction();
-        private static readonly Func<byte[], ByteString> ByteStringCtorFunc = CreateByteStringCtorFunc();
 
         internal static void AddBatch(
             this OtlpCollector.ExportTraceServiceRequest request,
@@ -135,7 +134,7 @@ internal static OtlpTrace.Span ToOtlpSpan(this Activity activity)
             {
                 byte[] parentSpanIdBytes = new byte[8];
                 activity.ParentSpanId.CopyTo(parentSpanIdBytes);
-                parentSpanIdString = ByteStringCtorFunc(parentSpanIdBytes);
+                parentSpanIdString = UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap(parentSpanIdBytes);
             }
 
             var startTimeUnixNano = activity.StartTimeUtc.ToUnixTimeNanoseconds();
@@ -146,8 +145,8 @@ internal static OtlpTrace.Span ToOtlpSpan(this Activity activity)
                 // There is an offset of 1 on the OTLP enum.
                 Kind = (OtlpTrace.Span.Types.SpanKind)(activity.Kind + 1),
 
-                TraceId = ByteStringCtorFunc(traceIdBytes),
-                SpanId = ByteStringCtorFunc(spanIdBytes),
+                TraceId = UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap(traceIdBytes),
+                SpanId = UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap(spanIdBytes),
                 ParentSpanId = parentSpanIdString,
 
                 StartTimeUnixNano = (ulong)startTimeUnixNano,
@@ -285,8 +284,8 @@ private static OtlpTrace.Span.Types.Link ToOtlpLink(ActivityLink activityLink)
 
             var otlpLink = new OtlpTrace.Span.Types.Link
             {
-                TraceId = ByteStringCtorFunc(traceIdBytes),
-                SpanId = ByteStringCtorFunc(spanIdBytes),
+                TraceId = UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap(traceIdBytes),
+                SpanId = UnsafeByteOperations.UnsafeWrap(spanIdBytes),
             };
 
             TagEnumerationState otlpTags = default;
@@ -341,26 +340,6 @@ private static OtlpTrace.Span.Types.Event ToOtlpEvent(ActivityEvent activityEven
             return (Action<RepeatedField<OtlpTrace.Span>, int>)dynamicMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<RepeatedField<OtlpTrace.Span>, int>));
         }
 
-        private static Func<byte[], ByteString> CreateByteStringCtorFunc()
-        {
-            ConstructorInfo byteStringCtor = typeof(ByteString).GetConstructor(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance, null, new[] { typeof(byte[]) }, null);
-
-            DynamicMethod dynamicMethod = new DynamicMethod(
-                "ByteStringCtor",
-                typeof(ByteString),
-                new[] { typeof(byte[]) },
-                typeof(ActivityExtensions).Module,
-                skipVisibility: true);
-
-            var generator = dynamicMethod.GetILGenerator();
-
-            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
-            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Newobj, byteStringCtor);
-            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
-
-            return (Func<byte[], ByteString>)dynamicMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<byte[], ByteString>));
-        }
-
         [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
         private static OtlpCommon.KeyValue CreateOtlpKeyValue(string key, OtlpCommon.AnyValue value)
         {