Top cannabis ETF to close as investors lose interest in marijuana industry

A starring exchange-traded money successful the cannabis abstraction volition adjacent up store arsenic capitalist involvement successful the legally restricted manufacture wanes.

AdvisorShares, the largest cannabis money manager, said its Poseidon Dynamic Cannabis ETF volition spot its last time of trading Aug. 25. The money volition liquidate assets and wage shareholders connected Sept. 1, according to a announcement connected the fund's website.

The fund, led by sibling founders Emily & Morgan Paxhia, launched connected the New York Stock Exchange successful November 2021 during a pandemic-era cannabis income boom.

The closure comes arsenic investors suffer involvement successful the quasi-legal cannabis manufacture that has struggled to scale. Wholesale prices person declined, and Congress has not reformed national laws that person hampered the sector's growth.

In an emailed connection to CNBC, co-founder Morgan Paxhia said the money was not "immune to the broader macro-economic situation and, much specifically, the melodramatic displacement successful capitalist sentiment that has impacted the cannabis industry."

While nearly fractional of U.S states person legalized the recreational usage of cannabis by adults, it remains amerciable astatine the national level. Its classification arsenic a Schedule I substance on with heroin and LSD has barred the assemblage from accessing astir banking services and from being traded crossed authorities lines, causing a glut of cannabis successful galore states and a driblet successful prices.

Sliding equity values person made investors crook distant from the industry, and superior has dried up.

Poseidon Investment Management, which started successful 2013 arsenic 1 of the archetypal cannabis-focused hedge funds successful the U.S., has seen its ETF suffer astir 74% successful worth since it was founded, versus a 1.7% diminution successful the S&P 500.

Its worth has fallen 65% successful the past twelvemonth and traded nether $1 connected Tuesday. Meanwhile, Pure US Cannabis ETF, different money successful the manufacture by AdvisorShares, plummeted by astir 60% successful the aforesaid period.

Poseidon is the latest casualty successful an manufacture strained by marketplace forces and economical policy.

Last month, a $2 cardinal merger betwixt cannabis multistate operators Cresco Labs and Columbia Care went up successful smoke much than a twelvemonth aft the companies announced the acquisition. And Mastercard, successful a determination that further alienates the cannabis manufacture from large banking, announced past period it volition halt allowing cannabis transactions on its debit cards to beryllium successful compliance with national law.