Cannabis legalization at the federal level is all-but-assured in 2019 in the US. Companies in Canada and those states who have already legalized have been making good on the promise of massive profits in the cannabis industry, with the legal cannabis industry in the US valued at an estimated $10.4 billion. Once that federal legalization occurs, cannabis companies will be able to list on US stock exchanges, leading to liquidity and major interest from new investors. That includes massive potential for cannabis crypto.
Despite the rapid pace of legalization, cannabis companies often have trouble finding that will agree to help them move their money. The blockchain has come to the rescue yet again, as a large number of cannabis-focused cryptocurrencies have erupted in the last five years to facilitate the movement of millions of dollars in legal cannabis funds. As the legal situation of cannabis companies changes so rapidly, blockchain is the only technology that is capable of keeping up with the pace of legalization worldwide and in the US.
We’ve already written about the markets set to be disrupted by cannabis. Influencers in both the crypto and cannabis spaces have taken note, and there are many people with powerful voices online who are extolling the virtues of cannabis crypto. Here are a few people worth following to stay on the cutting edge of this
Joel Yaffe, Founder, PotCoin
Website
PotCoin is the most well-known of the cannabis-based cryptocurrencies, with their high-profile celebrity endorsements, the most famous of which must be Dennis Rodman being interviewed by CNN in a PotCoin t-shirt & MAGA hat. PotCoin’s current market cap is around $31.4 million with 420 million coins (hah) available, 219 million of those are currently in circulation.
While Montreal entrepreneur Joel Yaffe doesn’t have much of a social media presence, the sheer audacity of PotCoin’s marketing strategy, and the fact that, at 5 years old, PotCoin is the oldest cannabis-focused crypto, puts Yaffe at the top of this list. While the man seems content to quietly work away on his various ventures rather than constantly retweeting and posing on Instagram, PotCoin’s ubiquity makes anything he does worth paying attention to.
Adam Howell, Founder, Dopecoin
Twitter
Dopecoin founder Adam Howell describes himself as a “Serial Entrepreneur and Dream Chaser.” His claim to fame is launching five start-ups in a single year, which is either terrifically impressive or terribly reckless, depending on how well each of those start-ups has performed.
Howell is a powerful believer in disruption, with many of his ventures designed around unconventional approaches and grassroots causes, like Unlock Food which uses ad revenue from smartphone unlock screens to donate food to people in poverty-stricken countries.
Cannabis Coin
Twitter
It’s difficult to pin down who, exactly, runs the Cannabis Coin social media accounts. We expect this is due to the legally grey area of the cannabis market and is a repeated theme throughout the world of cannabis crypto. Whoever is running CannabisCoin’s Twitter is doing a great job, with 18,000 followers for a pretty irregular posting schedule.
CannabisCoin’s motto is proudly displayed on the Twitter banner: a close-up of printed scrip superimposed with the word “FREEDOM” in a font meant to recall the Declaration of Independence or the poster for Hamilton.
Cecilia May Thorn, Cannabis Broker, Blogger for Leafbuyer
Leafbuyer
Instagram
Leafbuyer.com is a fast-growing blog about the cannabis industry and Cecilia May Thorn is one of their most prolific, award-winning writers. Thorn claims to be the first wholesale cannabis broker in the US – she established a small business in Colorado in 2012. Thorn has been working in the cannabis industry since 2009 and currently writes about the state of legalization and the various health benefits of cannabis consumption.
Kristina Etter, Blogger for Leafbuyer & CannabisTech
Leafbuyer
According to her bio, Kristina Etter used to work in IT and has made a full transition to a freelance journalist, focusing on cannabis. Due to her background, Etter writes on the more technical possibilities in cannabis and CBD than we’re used to. Rather than extolling the health benefits or tracking the cause of legalization, Etter’s pieces focus on sustainability, ethical farming, and DNA sequencing.
While Kristina doesn’t have much of a social media presence, she is one of the more prolific cannabis bloggers, with regular posts on Leafbuyer & Cannabis Tech.
Rama Mayo & Jason Gagnon, Green Street Agency
Instagram
Website
Green Street is a boutique marketing agency that works exclusively with the marijuana industry. At the beginning of 2019, they won Agency of the Year (US) in the AdCann Awards Advertising Awards. According to the announcement of the award, Green Street “is widely known for helping celebrities including 2 Chainz, The Game and Sublime with Rome create cannabis industry partnerships. The firm also works with cannabis community social media influencers such as Adam ill to create product offerings.”
Rama Mayo, Green Street’s founder, and Jason Gagnon, their Chief Creative Officer, don’t have much of a social media presence, but the Green Street Instagram has over sixteen thousand followers and this, plus their recent award, will only serve to bolster their influence in the cannabis space.
Bailey Reutzel, Blogger, Moneytripping.com
Website
Twitter
Bailey Reutzel is a freewheeling freelance journalist focusing on finance with an eye for stories about crypto and the blockchain. Reutzel is a writer and editor for coindesk.com. She came to our attention due to this Hunter S. Thompson-style Gonzo accounting of her journey through the Crypto-Cannabis Conference in Denver in 2016.
While Reutzel mostly writes on crypto itself, she is obviously tuned into the possibilities for joining crypto and cannabis and it’s worth joining her 8K+ Twitter followers. Her current project Moneytripping is intriguing: a cross-country journey around the US collecting stories on money, finance, and politics.
Jessica VerSteeg, CEO Paragon Coin
Twitter
Instagram
Even before she entered the cannabis crypto world, Jessica VerSteeg was a driven, hard-working success story. A former model, she was Miss Iowa US in 2014 and was a contestant on The Amazing Race Season 28. Using her natural charisma and ease in front of the camera, her and her husband, Russian technocrat Egor Lavrov, launched Paragon Coin as an ICO in 2017 to ease transactions on Paragon’s blockchain platform.
VerSteeg uses her significant pull as a well-photographed public figure to sell her company and to serve as an advocate for cannabis legalization.
CannaSafe, World’s First Accredited Cannabis Lab, LA
Instagram
Credit Paragon Coin CEO Jessica VerSteeg for turning us on to CannaSafe, the world’s first accredited cannabis lab. You might not think a lab would have much of a social following, but in the world of cannabis and blockchain, expect the unexpected: CannaSafe’s Instagram has over 30,000 followers.
Based out of LA, CannaSafe is a testing laboratory “committed to defining consumer safety and quality assurance standards for the cannabis industry.” While not directly related to the crypto world, businesses like CannaSafe are representative of the cannabis disruption of traditional spaces, and we wouldn’t be surprised if CannaSafe adopts the blockchain in the near future, as their entire model is based around consumer safety and transparency.
Javier Hasse
Twitter
Javier Hasse is an entrepreneur and author who has worked in and written about the cannabis industry for years, he even interviewed former President of Mexico Vicente Fox about the possibility of trading pot between Mexico and the US.
Hasse regularly writes about all things cannabis and hemp, and he occasionally focuses on the high-tech aspects of the industry. He wrote an article for Forbes on CannaRegs which “operates a data platform that provides comprehensive cannabis-related legal data, including rules and regulations.”
As one of the premier writers on the intersection between the cannabis, the legal system, and tech, it’s worth staying up to date on Hasse along with his nearly 2,500 Twitter followers. He’s also, apparently, a Billboard-topping rapper.
Ken Ramirez, Founder, Alt Thirty Six
Twitter
Website
Alt Thirty Six is an Arizona-based digital payment solution for cannabis dispensaries. Ramirez, Alt Thirty Six’s Founder and CEO, is focused on discovering and avoiding operational inefficiencies in traditional payment systems. Alt Thirty Six promises to eliminate the costs associated with accepting cash at dispensaries. They speak to a common problem for cannabis related businesses: the difficulty for CRBs to find banks willing to move their cash.
Ramirez is an outspoken advocate of his company and their mission. It is easy to find interviews with him extolling the virtues of a cashless business, especially where it comes to the cannabis industry. With an attractive interface, and partnerships with Dash, Blaze, and Canntrade, Alt Thirty Six is poised to be a major player in the world of cannabis crypto.
Stay On Top Of The Trends In Cannabis Crypto
The combined power of cannabis crypto is set to make major waves in their industries in the coming months and years. Knowing who to listen to will help smart investors stay on top of trends and watch out for looming drops. We’ll release updated lists as new influencers come to our attention, so keep on visiting TrendScan for more cannabis crypto news.