diff --git a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/java/java-concurrent/java-concurrent-1.8/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/java/concurrent/AsyncPropagatingDisableInstrumentation.java b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/java/java-concurrent/java-concurrent-1.8/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/java/concurrent/AsyncPropagatingDisableInstrumentation.java
index 1d543a705d2..70587135ac5 100644
--- a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/java/java-concurrent/java-concurrent-1.8/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/java/concurrent/AsyncPropagatingDisableInstrumentation.java
+++ b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/java/java-concurrent/java-concurrent-1.8/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/java/concurrent/AsyncPropagatingDisableInstrumentation.java
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ public AsyncPropagatingDisableInstrumentation() {
       nameEndsWith("io.grpc.internal.ManagedChannelImpl");
   private static final ElementMatcher<TypeDescription> REACTOR_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS =
       namedOneOf("reactor.core.scheduler.SchedulerTask", "reactor.core.scheduler.WorkerTask");
+  private static final ElementMatcher<TypeDescription> RXJAVA2_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS =
+      named("io.reactivex.internal.schedulers.AbstractDirectTask");
 
   @Override
   public boolean onlyMatchKnownTypes() {
@@ -77,7 +79,8 @@ public String[] knownMatchingTypes() {
       "net.sf.ehcache.store.disk.DiskStorageFactory",
       "org.springframework.jms.listener.DefaultMessageListenerContainer",
       "org.apache.activemq.broker.TransactionBroker",
-      "com.mongodb.internal.connection.DefaultConnectionPool$AsyncWorkManager"
+      "com.mongodb.internal.connection.DefaultConnectionPool$AsyncWorkManager",
+      "io.reactivex.internal.schedulers.AbstractDirectTask"
     };
   }
 
@@ -88,7 +91,10 @@ public String hierarchyMarkerType() {
 
   @Override
   public ElementMatcher<TypeDescription> hierarchyMatcher() {
-    return RX_WORKERS.or(GRPC_MANAGED_CHANNEL).or(REACTOR_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS);
+    return RX_WORKERS
+        .or(GRPC_MANAGED_CHANNEL)
+        .or(REACTOR_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS)
+        .or(RXJAVA2_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS);
   }
 
   @Override
@@ -172,6 +178,8 @@ public void methodAdvice(MethodTransformer transformer) {
         advice);
     transformer.applyAdvice(
         isTypeInitializer().and(isDeclaredBy(REACTOR_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS)), advice);
+    transformer.applyAdvice(
+        isTypeInitializer().and(isDeclaredBy(RXJAVA2_DISABLED_TYPE_INITIALIZERS)), advice);
   }
 
   public static class DisableAsyncAdvice {
diff --git a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/rxjava/rxjava-2.0/src/test/groovy/RxJava2Test.groovy b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/rxjava/rxjava-2.0/src/test/groovy/RxJava2Test.groovy
index b7dd68fa1d2..ad858348316 100644
--- a/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/rxjava/rxjava-2.0/src/test/groovy/RxJava2Test.groovy
+++ b/dd-java-agent/instrumentation/rxjava/rxjava-2.0/src/test/groovy/RxJava2Test.groovy
@@ -20,12 +20,6 @@ class RxJava2Test extends InstrumentationSpecification {
 
   public static final String EXCEPTION_MESSAGE = "test exception"
 
-  @Override
-  boolean useStrictTraceWrites() {
-    // TODO fix this by making sure that spans get closed properly
-    return false
-  }
-
   @Shared
   def addOne = { i ->
     addOneFunc(i)