diff --git a/packages/verified-fetch/src/utils/parse-url-string.ts b/packages/verified-fetch/src/utils/parse-url-string.ts
index 443bd8d..0bdc75b 100644
--- a/packages/verified-fetch/src/utils/parse-url-string.ts
+++ b/packages/verified-fetch/src/utils/parse-url-string.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { peerIdFromString } from '@libp2p/peer-id'
+import { peerIdFromCID, peerIdFromString } from '@libp2p/peer-id'
 import { base36 } from 'multiformats/bases/base36'
 import { CID } from 'multiformats/cid'
 import { TLRU } from './tlru.js'
@@ -178,7 +178,13 @@ export async function parseUrlString ({ urlString, ipns, logger }: ParseUrlStrin
       let peerId: PeerId | undefined
       try {
         // try resolving as an IPNS name
-        peerId = peerIdFromString(cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink, base36.decoder)
+
+        if (cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink.charAt(0) === '1' || cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink.charAt(0) === 'Q') {
+          peerId = peerIdFromString(cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink)
+        } else {
+          // try resolving as a base36 CID
+          peerId = peerIdFromCID(CID.parse(cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink))
+        }
         if (peerId.publicKey == null) {
           throw new TypeError('cidOrPeerIdOrDnsLink contains no public key')
         }
diff --git a/packages/verified-fetch/test/utils/parse-url-string.spec.ts b/packages/verified-fetch/test/utils/parse-url-string.spec.ts
index 12f7944..5e7d588 100644
--- a/packages/verified-fetch/test/utils/parse-url-string.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/verified-fetch/test/utils/parse-url-string.spec.ts
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ describe('parseUrlString', () => {
           ipns,
           logger
         })
-      ).to.eventually.be.rejected.with.property('message', 'Could not parse PeerId in ipns url "mydomain.com", Unable to decode multibase string "mydomain.com", base36 decoder only supports inputs prefixed with k')
+      ).to.eventually.be.rejected.with.property('message', 'Could not parse PeerId in ipns url "mydomain.com", To parse non base32, base36 or base58btc encoded CID multibase decoder must be provided')
     })
   })
 
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ describe('parseUrlString', () => {
 
       await expect(parseUrlString({ urlString: 'ipns://mydomain.com', ipns, logger })).to.eventually.be.rejected
         .with.property('errors').that.deep.equals([
-          new TypeError('Could not parse PeerId in ipns url "mydomain.com", Unable to decode multibase string "mydomain.com", base36 decoder only supports inputs prefixed with k'),
+          new TypeError('Could not parse PeerId in ipns url "mydomain.com", To parse non base32, base36 or base58btc encoded CID multibase decoder must be provided'),
           new Error('Unexpected failure from ipns dns query')
         ])
     })